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THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 


THE 
AMAZING    MARRIAGE 


BY 


GEORGE  MEREDITH 


VOLUME  I 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

1895 

[All  rights  reserved] 


COPYRIGHT,   1895,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


KortoootJ  ^rrss 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 

Jforwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


\  \ . 


To  my  Friend 
Frederick  Jameson 


599040 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

Enter  Dame  Gossip  as  Chorus 1 

CHAPTER  II 

Mistress  Gossip  tells  of  the  Elopement  of  the  Countess  of 
Cressett  with  the  Old  Buccaneer,  and  of  Charles  Dump 
the  Postillion  conducting  them,  and  of  a  Great  County- 
Family        17 

CHAPTER   III 

Continuation  of  the  Introductory  Meanderings  of  Dame  Gos- 
sip, together  with  her  Sudden  Extinction  ....      31 

CHAPTER  IV 

Morning  and  Farewell  to  an  Old  Home 41 

CHAPTER    V 
A  Mountain  Walk  in  Mist  and  Sunshine         ....      52 

CHAPTER   VI 
The  Natural  Philosopher 69 

CHAPTER  VII 
The  Lady's  Letter 82 

Y 


VI  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    VIII 

PAGE 

Of  the  Encounter  of  Two  Strange  Young  Men  and  their  Con- 
sorting :  in  which  the  Male  Eeader  is  requested  to  bear  in 
Mind  what  Wild  Creature  he  was  in  his  Youth,  while 
the  Female  should  marvel  credulously       ....      90 


CHAPTER  IX 

Concerning  the  Black  Goddess  Fortune  and  the  "Worship  of 
her,  together  with  an  Introduction  of  Some  of  her 
Votaries 109 


CHAPTER   X 
Small  Causes 129 

CHAPTER   XI 
The  Prisoner  of  his  Word 141 

CHAPTER    XII 

Henrietta's  Letter  treating  of  the  Great  Event        .        .        .     167 

CHAPTER  XIII 

An  Irruption  of  Mistress  Gossip  in  Breach  of  the  Convention    166 

CHAPTER  XIV 
A  Pendant  of  the  Foregoing 184 

CHAPTER   XV 
Opening  Stage  of  the  Honeymoon  .        ...        .        .        .     187 


CONTENTS  Vll 

CHAPTER  XVI 

PAGE 

In  which  the  Bride  from  Foreign  Parts  is  given  a  Taste  of 

Old  England 206 

CHAPTER    XVII 

Records  a  Shadow  Contest  close  on  the  Foregoing .        .        .     219 

CHAPTER   XVIII 
Down  Whitechapel  Way 230 

CHAPTER   XIX 
The  Girl  Madge 245 

CHAPTER   XX 

Studies  in  Fog,  Gout,  an  Old  Seaman,  a  Lovely  Serpent,  and 
the  Moral  Effects  that  may  come  of  a  Borrowed  Shirt       .     257 

CHAPTER   XXI 

In  which  we  have  Further  Glimpses  of  the  Wondrous  Mech- 
anism of  our  Younger  Man 271 

CHAPTER  XXII 
A  Right-minded  Great  Lady 281 

CHAPTER   XXIII 
In  Dame  Gossip's  Vein 288 

CHAPTER   XXIV 
A  Kidnapping  and  No  Great  Harm 307 


THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

CHAPTER  I 

ENTER    DAME    GOSSIP    AS    CHORUS 

Everybody  lias  heard  of  the  beautiful  Countess  of 
Cressett,  who  was  one  of  the  lights  of  this  country  at 
the  time  when  crowned  heads  were  running  over  Europe, 
crying  out  for  charity's  sake  to  be  amused,  after  their 
tiresome  work  of  slaughter  :  and  you  know  what  a  dread 
they  have  of  moping.  She  was  famous  for  her  fun  and 
high  spirits  besides  her  good  looks,  which  you  may 
judge  of  for  yourself  on  a  walk  down  most  of  our  great 
noblemen's  collections  of  pictures  in  England,  where  you 
will  behold  her  as  the  goddess  Diana  fitting  an  arrow  to 
a  bow ;  and  elsewhere  an  Amazon  holding  a  spear ;  or  a 
lady  with  dogs,  in  the  costume  of  the  day ;  and  in  one 
place  she  is  a  nymph,  if  not  Diana  herself,  gazing  at  her 
naked  feet  before  her  attendants  loosen  her  tunic  for  her 
to  take  the  bath,  and  her  hounds  are  pricking  their  ears, 
and  you  see  antlers  of  a  stag  behind  a  block  of  stone. 
She  was  a  wonderful  swimmer,  among  other  things,  and 
one  early  morning,  when  she  was  a  girl,  she  did  really 

B  1 


Z  THE   AMAZING   MAERIAGE 

swim,  they  say,  across  the  Shannon  and  back  to  win  a 
bet  for  her  brother  Lord  Levellier,  the  colonel  of  cavalry, 
who  left  an  arm  in  Egypt,  and  changed  his  way  of  life  to 
become  a  wizard,  as  the  common  people  about  his  neigh- 
bourhood supposed,  because  he  foretold  the  weather  and 
had  cures  for  aches  and  pains  without  a  doctor's  diploma. 
But  we  know  now  that  he  was  only  a  mathematician  and 
astronomer,  all  for  inventing  military  engines.  The 
brother  and  sister  were  great  friends  in  their  youth,  when 
he  had  his  right  arm  to  defend  her  reputation  with ;  and 
she  would  have  done  anything  on  earth  to  please  him. 

There  is  a  picture  of  her  in  an  immense  flat  white  silk 
hat  trimmed  with  pale  blue,  like  a  pavilion,  the  broadest 
brim  ever  seen,  and  she  simply  sits  on  a  chair;  and 
Venus  the  Queen  of  Beauty  would  have  been  extinguished 
under  that  hat,  I  am  sure ;  and  only  to  look  at  Countess 
Eanny's  eye  beneath  the  brim  she  has  tipped  ever  so 
slightly  in  her  artfulness  makes  the  absurd  thing  grace- 
ful and  suitable.  Oh !  she  was  a  cunning  one.  But  you 
must  be  on  your  guard  against  the  scandalmongers  and 
collectors  of  anecdotes,  and  worst  of  any,  the  critic  of 
our  Galleries  of  Art;  for  she  being  in  almost  all 
of  them  (the  principal  painters  of  the  day  were  on  their 
knees  for  the  favour  of  a  sitting),  they  have  to  speak  of 
her  pretty  frequently,  and  they  season  their  dish,  the 
coxcombs  do,  by  hinting  a  knowledge  of  her  history. 

^'Here  we  come  to  another  portrait  of  the  beautiful 
but,  we  fear,  naughty  Countess  of  Cressett." 


ENTER  DAME  GOSSIP   AS  CHORUS  3 

You  are  to  imagine  that  they  know  everything,  and 
they  are  so  indulgent  when  they  drop  their  blot  on  a 
lady's  character! 

They  can  boast  of  nothing  more  than  having  read 
Nymney's  Letters  and  Correspondence,  published,  fort- 
unately for  him,  when  he  was  no  longer  to  be  called 
to  account  below  for  his  malicious  insinuations,  pre- 
tending to  decency  in  initials  and  dashes.  That  man 
was  a  hater  of  women  and  the  clergy.  He  was  one 
of  the  horrid  creatures  who  write  with  a  wink  at  you, 
which  sets  the  wicked  part  of  us  on  fire:  I  have 
known  it  myself,  and  I  own  it  to  my  shame ;  and  if  I 
happened  to  be  ignorant  of  the  history  of  Countess 
Fanny,  I  could  not  refute  his  wantonness.  He  has 
just  the  same  benevolent  leer  for  a  bishop.  Give  me, 
if  we  are  to  make  a  choice,  the  beggar's  breech  for 
decency,  I  say :  I  like  it  vastly  in  preference  to  a 
Nymney  who  leads  you  up  to  the  curtain  and  agitates 
it,  and  bids  you  to  retire  on  tiptoe.  You  cannot  help 
being  angry  with  the  man  for  both  reasons.  But  he 
is  the  writer  society  delights  in,  to  show  what  it  is 
composed  of.  A  man  brazen  enough  to  declare  that 
he  could  hold  us  in  suspense  about  the  adventures  of 
a  broomstick,  with  the  aid  of  a  yashmak  and  an  ankle, 
may  know  the  world;  you  had  better  not  know  him  — 
that  is  my  remark;  and  do  not  trust  him. 

He  tells  the  story  of  the  Old  Buccaneer  in  fear  of 
the  public,  for  it  was  general  property,  but  of  course 


4  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

he  finishes  with  a  Nymney  touch :  "  So  the  Old  Buc- 
caneer is  the  doubloon  she  takes  in  exchange  for  a 
handful  of  silver  pieces."  There  was  no  such  handful 
to  exchange  —  not  of  the  kind  he  sickeningly  nudges 
at  you.  I  will  prove  to  you  it  was  not  the  Countess 
Fanny's  naughtiness,  though  she  was  indeed  very 
blamable.  Women  should  walk  in  armour  as  if  they 
were  born  to  it;  for.  these  cold  sneerers  will  never 
waste  their  darts  on  cuirasses.  An  independent  brave 
young  creature,  exposing  herself  thoughtlessly  in  her 
reckless  innocence,  is  the  victim  for  them.  They  will 
bring  all  society  down  on  her  with  one  of  their  explo- 
sive sly  words  appearing  so  careless,  the  cowards.  I 
say  without  hesitation,  her  conduct  with  regard  to 
Kirby,  the  Old  Buccaneer,  as  he  was  called,  however 
indefensible  in  itself,  warrants  her  at  heart  an  inno- 
cent young  woman,  much  to  be  pitied.  Only  to  think 
of  her,  I  could  sometimes  drop  into  a  chair  for  a 
good  cry.  And  of  him  too!  and  their  daughter  Ca- 
rinthia  Jane  was  the  pair  of  them,  as  to  that,  and  so 
was  Chillon  John,  the  son. 

Those  critics  quoting  Nymney  should  look  at  the 
portrait  of  her  in  the  Long  Saloon  of  Cressett  Castle, 
where  she  stands  in  blue  and  white,  completely  dressed, 
near  a  table  supporting  a  couple  of  holster  pistols, 
and  then  let  them  ask  themselves  whether  they  would 
speak  of  her  so  if  her  little  hand  could  move. 

Well,  and  so  the  tale  of  her  swim  across  the  Shan- 


ENTER  DAME   GOSSIP   AS   CHORUS  5 

non  Eiver  and  back  drove  the  young  Earl  of  Cressett 
straight  over  to  Ireland  to  propose  for  her,  he  saying, 
that  she  was  the  girl  to  suit  his  book;  not  allowing 
her  time  to  think  of  how  much  he  might  be  the  man 
to  suit  hers.  The  marriage  was  what  is  called  a  good 
one :  both  full  of  frolic,  and  he  wealthy  and  rather 
handsome,  and  she  quite  lovely  and  spirited. 

No  wonder  the  whole  town  was  very  soon  agog  about 
the  couple,  until  at  the  end  of  a  year  people  began  to 
talk  of  them  separately,  she  going  her  way,  and  he  his. 
She  could  not  always  be  on  the  top  of  a  coach,  which 
was  his  throne  of  happiness. 

Plenty  of  stories  are  current  still  of  his  fame  as  a 
four-in-hand  coachman.  They  say  he  once  drove  an 
Emperor  and  a  King,  a  Prince  Chancellor  and  a  pair 
of  Field  Marshals,  and  some  ladies  of  the  day,  from 
the  metropolis  to  Richmond  Hill  in  fifty  or  sixty  odd 
minutes,  having  the  ground  cleared  all  the  way  by  bell 
and  summons,  and  only  a  donkey-cart  and  man,  and  a 
deaf  old  woman,  to  pay  for ;  and  went,  as  you  can  im- 
agine, at  such  a  tearing  gallop,  that  these  Grand  High- 
nesses had  to  hold  on  for  their  lives  and  lost  their  hats 
along  the  road;  and  a  publican  at  Kew  exhibits  one 
above  his  bar  to  the  present  hour.  And  Countess  Eanny 
was  up  among  them,  they  say.  She  was  equal  to  it. 
And  some  say,  that  was  the  occasion  of  her  meeting 
the  Old  Buccaneer. 

She  met  him  at  Richmond  in  Surrey  we  know  for 


6  THE   AMAZING   MAEKIAGE 

certain.  It  was  on  Richmond  Hill,  where  the  old  King 
met  his  Lass.  They  say  Countess  Fanny  was  parading 
the  hill  to  behold  the  splendid  view,  always  admired 
so  much  by  foreigners,  with  their  Achs  and  Hechs ! 
and  surrounded  by  her  crowned  courtiers  in  frogged 
uniforms  and  moustachioed  like  sea-horses,  a  little  before 
dinner-time,  when  Kirby  passed  her,  and  the  emperor 
made  a  remark  on  him,  for  Kirby  was  a  magnificent 
figure  of  a  man  and  used  to  be  compared  to  a  three- 
decker  entering  harbour  after  a  victory.  He  stood  six 
feet  four,  and  was  broad-shouldered  and  deep-chested 
to  match,  and  walked  like  a  king  who  has  humbled 
his  enemy.  You  have  seen  big  dogs.  And  so  Countess 
Fanny  looked  round.  Kirby  was  doing  the  same.  But 
he  had  turned  right  about,  square-chested,  and  appeared 
transfixed  and  like  a  royal  beast  angry  with  his  wound. 
If  ever  there  was  love  at  first  sight,  and  a  dreadful 
love,  like  a  runaway  mail-coach  in  a  storm  of  wind  and 
lightning  at  black  midnight,  by  the  banks  of  a  flooded 
river,  which  was  formerly  our  comparison  for  terrible 
situations,  it  was  when  those  two  met. 

And,  what!  you  exclaim,  Buccaneer  Kirby  full  sixty- 
five,  and  Countess  Fanny  no  more  than  three  and 
twenty,  a  young  beauty  of  the  world  of  fashion, 
courted  by  the  highest,  and  she  in  love  with  him ! 
Go  and  gaze  at  one  of  our  big  ships  coming  out  of 
an  engagement,  home  with  all  her  flags  flying  and  her 
crew  manning  the  yards.     That  will  give  you  an  idea 


ENTER  DAME   GOSSIP   AS   CHORUS  < 

of  a  young  woman's  feelings  for  an  old  warrior  never 
beaten  down  an  inch  by  anything  he  had  to  endure; 
matching  him,  I  dare  say,  in  her  woman's  heart,  with 
the  Mighty  Highnesses  who  had  only  smelt  the  out- 
side edge  of  battle.  She  did  rarely  admire  a  valiant 
man.  Old  as  Methuselah,  he  would  have  made  her 
kneel  to  him.     She  was  all  heart  for  a  real  hero. 

The  story  goes,  that  Countess  Fanny  sent  her  hus- 
band to  Captain  Kirby,  at  the  emperor's  request,  to 
inquire  his  name;  and  on  hearing  it,  she  struck  her 
hands  on  her  bosom,  telling  his  Majesty  he  saw  there 
the  bravest  man  in  the  king's  dominions ;  which  the 
emperor  scarce  crediting,  and  observing  that  the  man 
must  be,  then,  a  superhuman  being  to  be  so  dis- 
tinguished in  a  nation  of  the  brave.  Countess  Eanny 
related  the  well-known  tale  of  Captain  Kirby  and  the 
shipful  of  mutineers;  and  how  when  not  a  man  of 
them  stood  by  him,  and  he  in  the  service  of  the  first 
insurgent  State  of  Spanish  America,  to  save  his  ship 
from  being  taken  over  to  the  enemy,  he  blew  her  up, 
fifteen  miles  from  land:  and  so  he  got  to  shore  swim- 
ming and  floating  alternately,  and  was  called  Old  Sky- 
High  by  English  sailors,  any  number  of  whom  could 
always  be  had  to  sail  under  Buccaneer  Kirby.  He 
fought  on  shore  as  well ;  and  once  he  came  down 
from  the  tops  of  the  Andes  with  a  black  beard  turned 
white,  and  went  into  action  with  the  title  of  Kirby's 
Ghost. 


8  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

But  his  heart  was  on  salt  water;  he  was  never  so 
much  at  home  as  in  a  ship  foimdering  or  splitting 
into  the  clouds.  ^Ye  are  told  that  he  never  forgave 
the  Admiralty  for  striking  him  off  the  list  of  English 
naval  captains :  which  is  no  doubt  why  in  his  old  age 
he  nursed  a  grudge  against  his  country. 

Ours,  I  am  sure,  was  the  loss ;  and  many  have 
thought  so  since.  He  was  a  mechanician,  a  master  of 
stratagems,  and  would  say,  that  brains  will  beat 
Grim  Death,  if  ice  have  enough  of  them.  He  was  a 
standing  example  of  the  lessons  of  his  o^ti  Maxims 
for  Men,  a  very  curious  book,  that  fetches  a  rare 
price  now  wherever  a  copy  is  put  up  for  auction.  I 
shudder  at  them  as  if  they  were  muzzles  of  firearms 
pointed  at  me;  but  they  were  not  addressed  to  my 
sex;  and  still  they  give  me  an  interest  in  the  writer 
who  would  declare,  that  "7ie  had  never  failed  in  an 
undertaking  ivithout  stripping  hare  to  expose  to  himself 
where  he  had  been  wanting  in  Intention  and  Determinor 
tion.^^ 

There  you  may  see  a  truly  terrible  man. 

So  the  emperor  being  immensely  taken  with  Kirby's 
method  of  preserving  discipline  on  board  ship,  because 
(as  we  say  to  the  madman.  Your  strait-icaistcoat  is  my 
easy-chair)  monarchs  have  a  great  love  of  discipline, 
he  begged  Countess  Fanny's  permission  that  he  might 
invite  Captain  Kirby  to  his  table  ;  and  Countess  Eanny 
(she  had  her  name  from  the  ballad: 


ENTER  DAME  GOSSIP  AS   CHORUS  9 

^^  lam  the  star  of  Prince  and  Czar, 
My  light  is  shed  on  many, 
But  I IV ait  here  till  my  bold  Buccaneer 
Makes  prize  of  Countess  Fanny:  " — 

for  the  popular  imagination  was  extraordinarily  roused 
by  the  elopement,  and  there  were  songs  and  ballads  out 
of  number),  Countess  Fanny  despatched  her  husband  to 
Captain  Kirby  again,  meaning  no  harm,  though  the  poor 
man  is  laughed  at  in  the  songs  for  going  twice  upon  his 
mission. 

None  of  the  mighty  people  repented  of  having  the 
Old  Buccaneer  —  for  that  night,  at  all  events.  He  sat 
in  the  midst  of  them,  you  may  believe,  like  the  lord  of 
that  table,  with  his  great  white  beard  and  hair  —  not  a 
lock  of  it  shed  —  and  his  bronze  lion-face,  and  a  resolute 
but  a  merry  eye  that  he  had.  He  was  no  deep  drinker 
of  wine,  but  when  he  did  drink,  and  the  Avine  cham- 
pagne, he  drank  to  show  his  disdain  of  its  powers ;  and 
the  emperor  wishing  for  a  narrative  of  some  of  his 
exploits,  particularly  the  blowing  up  of  the  ship,  Kirby 
p?id  his  Majesty  the  compliment  of  giving  it  him  as 
baldly  as  an  official  report  to  the  Admiralty.  So  disen- 
gaged and  calm  was  he,  with  his  bottles  of  champagne 
in  him,  where  another  would  have  been  sparkling  and 
laying  on  the  colours,  that  he  was  then  and  there  offered 
Admiral's  rank  in  the  Imperial  navy;  and  the  Old 
Buccaneer,  like  a  courtier  of  our  best  days,  bows  to 
Countess  Fanny,  and  asks  her,  if  he  is  a  free  man  to  go : 


10  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

and,  !N"o,  says  she,  we  cannot  spare  you!  And  there 
was  a  pretty  wrangle  between  Countess  Fanny  and  the 
emperor,  each  pulling  at  the  Old  Buccaneer  to  have 
possession  of  him. 

He  was  rarely  out  of  her  sight  after  their  first  meet- 
ing, and  the  ridiculous  excuse  she  gave  to  her  husband's 
family  was,  she  feared  he  would  be  kidnapped  and 
made  a  Cossack  of !  and  young  Lord  Cressett,  her  hus- 
band, began  to  grumble  concerning  her  intimacy  with  a 
man  old  enough  to  be  her  grandfather.  As  if  the  age 
were  the  injury !  He  seemed  to  think  it  so,  and  vowed 
he  would  shoot  the  old  depredator  dead,  if  he  found  him 
on  the  grounds  of  Cressett :  "  like  vermin,"  he  said,  and 
it  was  considered  that  he  had  the  right,  and  no  jury 
would  have  convicted  him.  You  know  what  those  days 
were. 

He  had  his  opportunity  one  moonlight  night,  not  far 
from  the  castle,  and  peppered  Kirby  with  shot  from  a 
fowling-piece  at,  some  say,  five  paces'  distance,  if  not 
point-blank. 

But  Kirby  had  a  maxim.  Steady  shakes  them,  and  he 
acted  on  it  to  receive  his  enemy's  fire :  and  the  young 
lord's  hand  shook,  and  the  Old  Buccaneer  stood  out  of 
the  smoke  not  much  injured,  except  in  the  coat-collar, 
Y^ith  a  pistol  cocked  in  his  hand,  and  he  said:  — 

^''  Many  would  take  that  for  a  declaration  of  war,  but 
I  know  it's  only  your  lordship's  diplomacy " ;  and  then 
he  let  loose  to  his  mad  fun,  astounding  Lord  Cressett 


ENTER   DAME   GOSSIP  AS   CHORUS  11 

and  Ms  gamekeeper,  and  vowed,  as  tlie  young  lord  tried 
to  relate  subsequently,  as  well  as  he  could  recollect  tlie 
words  —  here  I  have  it  in  print:  —  ^^ tlicit  he  v:as  a  man 
pickled  in  saltpetre  ichen  an  infant,  like  Achilles,  and  X)roof 
against  powder  and  shot  not  marked  icith  cross  and  key, 
and  fetched  up  from  the  square  magazine  in  the  central 
depot  of  the  infernal  factory,  third  turning  to  the  right  off 
the  grand  arcade  in  Kingdom-come,  ichere  the  night-porter 
has  to  zcear  ivet  petticoats,  like  a  Highland,  chief,  to  make 
short  icork  of  the  spxirks  flying  about,  othencise  this  ivorld 
and  many  another  v:ould  not  have  to  u:ait  long  for  combus- 
tion.'' 

Kirby  had  the  wildest  way  of  talking  when  he  was 
not  issuing  orders  under  fire,  best  understood  by  sailors. 
I  give  it  you  as  it  stands  here  printed.  I  do  not  profess 
to  understand. 

So  Lord  Cressett  said :  "  Diplomacy  and  infernal  fac- 
tories be  hanged !  Have  your  shot  at  me ;  it's  only 
fair."  And  Kirby  discharged  his  pistol  at  the  top 
twigs  of  an  old  oak  tree,  and  called  the  young  lord  a 
Briton,  and  proposed  to  take  him  in  hand  and  make  a 
man  of  him,  as  nigh  worthy  of  his  wife  as  any  one  not 
an  Alexander  of  Macedon  could  be. 

So  they  became  friendly,  and  the  young  lord  con- 
fessed it  was  his  family  that  had  urged  him  to  the  at- 
tack ;  and  Kirby  abode  at  the  castle,  and  all  three  were 
happy,  in  perfect  honour,  I  am  convinced:  but  such 
was  not  the  opinion  of  the   Cressetts  and  Levelliers. 


12  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Down  they  trooped  to  Cressett  Castle  witli  a  rusli 
and  a  roar,  crying  on  the  disgrace  of  an  old  desperado 
like  Kirby  living  there ;  Dukes,  Marchionesses,  Cabinet 
Ministers,  leaders  of  fashion,  and  fire-eating  colonels 
of  the  King's  body-guard,  one  of  whom  Captain  John 
Peter  Kirby  laid  on  his  heels  at  ten  paces  on  an  April 
morning,  when  the  duel  was  fought,  as  early  as  the 
blessed  heavens  had  given  them  light  to  see  to  do  it. 
Such  days  those  were! 

There  was  talk  of  shutting  up  the  infatuated  lady.  If 
not  incarcerated,  she  was  rigidly  watched.  The  earl 
her  husband  fell  altogether  to  drinking  and  coaching, 
and  other  things.     The  ballad  makes  her  say :  — 

"  My  family  my  gaolers  be, 
My  husband  is  a  zany  ; 
Naught  see  I  clear  save  my  bold  Buccaneer 
To  rescue  Countess  Fanny  !" 

and  it  goes  on :  — 

"  0  little  lass^  at  play  on  the  grass. 
Come  earn  a  silver  penny ^ 
And  you'' II  be  dear  to  my  bold  Buccaneer 
For  news  of  his  Countess  Fanny" 

In  spite  of  her  bravery,  that  poor  woman  suffered! 

We  used  to  learn  by  heart  the  ballads  and  songs 
upon  famous  events  in  those  old  days  when  poetry  was 
worshipped. 


ENTER  DAME   GOSSIP   AS   CHORUS  13 

But  Captain  Kirby  gave  provocation  enough,  to  both 
families  when  he  went  among  the  taverns  and  clubs, 
and  vowed  before  Providence  over  his  big  fist  that  they 
should  rue  their  interference,  and  he  would  carry  off 
the  lady  on  a  day  he  named ;  he  named  the  hour  as 
well,  they  say,  and  that  was  midnight  of  the  month  of 
June.  The  Levelliers  and  Cressetts  foamed  at  the 
mouth  in  speaking  of  him,  so  enraged  they  were  on 
account  of  his  age  and  his  passion  for  a  young  woman. 
As  to  blood,  the  Kirbys  of  Lincolnshire  were  quite 
equal  to  the  Cressetts  of  Warwick.  The  Old  Buccaneer 
seems  to  have  had  money  too.  But  you  can  see  what 
her  people  had  to  complain  of:  his  insolent  contempt 
of  them  was  unexampled.  And  their  tyranny  had 
roused  my  lady's  high  spirit  not  a  bit  less,  and  she 
said  right  out :  '^  When  he  comes,  I  am  ready  and  will 
go  with  him." 

There  was  boldness  for  you  on  both  sides !  All  the 
town  was  laughing  and  betting  on  the  event  of  the 
night  in  June :  and  the  odds  were  in  favour  of  Kirby ; 
for  though  Lord  Cressett  was  quite  the  popular  young 
English  nobleman,  being  a  capital  whip  and  free  of  his 
coin,  in  those  days  men  who  had  smelt  powder  were  often 
prized  above  titles,  and  the  feeling,  out  of  society,  was 
very  strong  for  Kirby,  even  previous  to  the  fight  on 
the  heath.  And  the  age  of  the  indomitable  adventurer 
must  have  contributed  to  his  popularity.  He  was  the 
hero  of  every  song. 


14  THE  AMAZIKG  MARRIAGE 

"  Whafs  age  to  me  !  "  cries  Kirhy ; 
*'  Why^  young  and  fresh  let  her  he, 

But  ifs  mighty  better  reasoned 

For  a  man  to  he  well  seasoned, 
And  a  man  she  has  in  me,''"'  cries  Kirhy. 

As  to  his  exact  age :  — 

"  Write  me  down  sixty -three, '^  cries  Kirhy. 

I  have  always  maintained  that  it  was  an  understate- 
ment. We  must  remember,  it  was  not  Kirby  speaking, 
but  the  song-writer.  Kirby  would  not,  in  my  opinion, 
have  numbered  years  he  was  proud  of  below  their  due 
quantity.  He  was  more,  if  he  died  at  ninety -one ;  and 
Chillon  Switzer  John  Kirby,  born  eleven  months  after 
the  elopement,  was,  we  know,  twenty-three  years  old  when 
the  old  man  gave  up  the  ghost  and  bequeathed  him 
little  besides  a  law-suit  with  the  Austrian  Government, 
and  the  care  of  Carinthia  Jane,  the  second  child  of  this 
extraordinary  union :  both  children  born  in  wedlock,  as 
you  will  hear.  Sixty-three,  or  sixty-seven,  near  upon 
seventy,  when  most  men  are  reaping  and  stacking  their 
sins  with  groans  and  weak  knees,  Kirby  was  a  match 
for  his  juniors,  which  they  discovered. 

Captain  John  Peter  Avason  Kirby,  son  of  a  Lincoln- 
shire squire  of  an  ancient  stock,  was  proud  of  his  blood 
and  claimed  descent  from  a  chief  of  the  Danish  rovers. 

"  WhaVs  rank  to  we  /"  cries  Kirhy; 
"  A  titled  lass  let  her  he, 


ENT^ER   DAME   GOSSIP   AS   CHORUS  15 

But  unless  my  plans  miscarry, 
Til  show  her  lohen  we  marry, 
As  brave  a  pedigree,''''  cries  Kirhy. 

That  was  the  song-writer's  answer  to  the  charge  that 
the  countess  had  stooped  to  a  degrading  alliance. 

John  Peter  was  fourth  of  a  family  of  seven  children, 
all  males,  and  hard  at  the  bottle  early  in  life :  "/or 
want  of  proper  occupation,''^  he  says  in  his  Memoirs,  and 
applauds  his  brother  Stanson,  the  clergyman,  for  being 
ahead  of  him  in  renouncing  strong  drinks,  because  he 
found  that  he  "  cursed  better  upon  tcater.'^  Water,  however, 
helped  Stanson  Kirby  to  outlive  his  brothers  and  inherit 
the  Lincolnshire  property,  and  at  the  period  of  the  great 
scandal  in  London  he  was  palsied  and  waited  on  by  his 
grandson  and  heir  Ralph  Thorkill  Kirby,  the  hero  of 
an  adventure  celebrated  in  our  law  courts  and  on  the 
English  stage ;  for  he  took  possession  of  his  coachman's 
wife,  and  was  accused  of  compassing  the  death  of  the 
husband.  He  was  not  hanged  for  it,  so  we  are  bound 
to  think  him  not  guilty. 

The  stage-piece  is  called  Saturday  Night,  and  it 
had  an  astonishing  run,  but  is  only  remembered  now 
for  the  song  of  "  Saturday,"  sung  by  the  poor  coach- 
man and  labourers  at  the  village  ale-house  before  he 
starts  to  capture  his  wife  from  the  clutches  of  her 
seducer  and  meets  his  fate.  Never  was  there  a  more 
popular  song:  you  heard  it  everywhere.  I  recollect 
one  verse :  — 


16  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

"  0  Saturday  money  is  slippery  metal, 
And  Saturday  ale  it  is  tipsy  stuff: 
At  home  the  old  woman  is  boiling  her  kettle. 
She  thinks  ice  donH  know  whenwe''ve  tippled  enough. 
We  drink,  and  of  never  a  man  are  we  jealous, 
And  never  a  man  against  us  will  he  speak : 
For  who  can  he  hard  on  a  set  of  poor  fellows 
Who  only  see  Saturday  once  a  weekf'' 

You  chorus  the  last  two  lines. 

That  was  the  very  song  the  unfortunate  coachman  of 
Kirby  Hall  joined  in  singing  before  he  went  out  to  face 
his  end  for  the  woman  he  loved.  He  believed  in  her 
virtue  to  the  very  last. 

"  Tlie  ravished  imfe  of  my  hosom,^^  he  calls  her  all 
through  the  latter  half  of  the  play.  It  is  a  real  tragedy. 
The  songs  of  that  day  have  lost  their  effect  now,  I  sup- 
pose. They  will  ever  remain  pathetic  to  me;  and  to 
hear  the  poor  coachman  William  Martin  invoking  the 
name  of  his  dear  stolen  wife  Elizabeth,  jug  in  hand, 
so  tearfully,  while  he  joins  the  song  of  Saturday,  was 
a  most  moving  thing.  You  saw  nothing  but  handker- 
chiefs out  all  over  the  theatre.  What  it  is  that  has 
gone  from  our  drama,  I  cannot  tell :  I  am  never  affected 
now  as  I  was  then ;  and  people  in  a  low  station  of  life 
could  affect  me  then,  without  being  flung  at  me,  for 
I  dislike  an  entire  dish  of  them,  I  own.  We  were 
simpler  in  our  habits  and  ways  of  thinking.  Eliza- 
beth Martin,  according  to  report,  was  a  woman  to  make 
better    men  than    Ealph    Thorkill    act    evilly  —  as   to 


THE  ELOPEMENT  17 

good  looks,  I  mean.  She  was  not  entirely  guiltless,  I 
am  afraid;  though,  in  the  last  scene,  Mrs.  Kempson, 
who  played  the  part  (as,  alas,  she  could  do  to  the 
very  life ! ),  so  threw  herself  into  the  pathos  of  it  that 
there  were  few  to  hold  out  against  her,  and  we  felt 
that  Elizabeth  had  been  misled.  So  much  for  morality 
in  these  days ! 

And  noAV  for  the  elopement. 


CHAPTER  II 


MISTRESS  GOSSIP  TELLS  OF  THE  ELOPEMENT  OF  THE 
COUXTESS  OF  CRESSETT  WITH  THE  OLD  BUCCANEER, 
AND  OF  CHARLES  DUMP  THE  POSTILLION  CONDUCTING 
THEM,    AND    OF    A    GREAT    COUNTY    FAMILY 

The  twenty-first  of  June  was  the  day  appointed 
by  Captain  Kirby  to  carry  off  Countess  Fanny,  and 
the  time  midnight:  and  ten  minutes  to  the  stroke  of 
twelve,  Countess  Fanny,  as  if  she  scorned  to  conceal 
that  she  was  in  a  conspiracy  with  her  grey-haired 
lover,  notwithstanding  that  she  was  watched  and 
guarded,  left  the  ^larchioness  of  Arpington's  ball-room 
and  was  escorted  downstairs  by  her  brother  Lord 
Levellier,  sworn  to  baffle  Kirby.  Present  with  him 
in  the  street  and  witness  of  the  shutting  the  car- 
riage-door on  Countess  Fanny,  were  brother  officers 
c 


18  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

of  liisj  General  Abrane,  Colonel  Jack  Potts,  and  Sir 
Upton  Toniber. 

The  door  fast  shut,  Countess  Fanny  kissed  her  hand 
to  them  and  drew  up  the  window,  seeming  merry,  and 
as  they  had  expected  indignation  and  perhaps  resist- 
ance, for  she  could  be  a  spitfire  in  a  temper  and  had 
no  fear  whatever  of  firearms,  they  were  glad  to  have  her 
safe  on  such  good  terms  5  and  so  General  Abrane  jumped 
up  on  the  box  beside  the  coachman.  Jack  Potts  jumped 
up  between  the  footmen,  and  Sir  Upton  Tomber  and 
the  one-armed  lord,  as  soon  as  the  carriage  was  disen- 
gaged from  the  ruck  two  deep,  walked  on  each  side 
of  it  in  the  road  all  the  way  to  Lord  Cressett's  town 
house.  No  one  thought  of  asking  where  that  silly 
young  man  was — probably  under  some  table. 

Their  numbers  were  swelled  by  quite  a  host  going 
along,  for  heavy  bets  were  on  the  affair,  dozens  hav- 
ing backed  Kirby;  and  it  must  have  appeared  serious 
to  them,  with  the  lady  in  custody,  and  constables  on 
the  look-out,  and  Kirby  and  his  men  nowhere  in  sight. 
They  expected  an  onslaught  at  some  point  of  the  pro- 
cession, and  it  may  be  believed  they  wished  it,  if  only 
that  they  might  see  something  for  their  money.  A 
beautiful  bright  moonlight  night  it  happened  to  be. 
Arm  in  arm  among  them  were  Lord  Pitscrew  and 
Eussell,  Earl  of  Fleetwood,  a  great  friend  of  Kirby's ; 
for  it  was  a  device  of  the  Old  Buccaneer's  that  helped 
the   earl  to   win  the   great   Welsh   heiress   who   made 


THE  ELOPEMENT  19 

Hm,  even  before  he  took  to  hoarding  and  buying,  one 
of  the  wealthiest  noblemen  in  England;  but  she  was 
crazed  by  her  marriage  or  the  wild  scenes  leading  to 
it;  she  never  presented  herself  in  society.  She  would 
sit  on  the  top  of  Estlemont  Towers  —  as  they  formerly 
spelt  it  —  all  day  and  half  the  night  in  midwinter, 
often,  looking  for  the  mountains  down  in  her  native 
West  country,  covered  with  an  old  white  flannel  cloak, 
and  on  her  head  a  tall  hat  of  her  Welsh  women-folk ; 
and  she  died  of  it,  leaving  a  son  in  her  likeness,  of 
whom  you  will  hear.  Lord  Fleetwood  had  lost  none  of 
his  faith  in  Kirby,  and  went  on  booking  bets  giving 
him  huge  odds,  thousands ! 

He  accepted  fifty  to  one  when  the  carriage  came  to 
a  stop  at  the  steps  of  Lord  Cressett's  mansion ;  but  he 
wds  anxious,  and  well  he  might  be,  seeing  Countess 
Fanny  alight  and  pass  up  between  two  lines  of  gentle- 
men all  bowing  low  before  her:  not  a  sign  of  the  Old 
Buccaneer  anywhere  to  right  or  left !  Heads  were  on 
the  look-out,  and  vows  offered  up  for  his  appearance. 

She  was  at  the  door  and  about  to  enter  the  house. 
Then  it  was,  that  with  a  shout  of  the  name  of  some 
dreadful  heathen  god.  Colonel  Jack  Potts  roared  out, 
"  She's  half  a  foot  short  o'  the  mark ! " 

He  was  on  the  pavement,  and  it  seems  he  measured  her 
as  she  slipped  by  him,  and  one  thing  and  another  caused 
him  to  smell  a  cheat ;  and  General  Abrane,  standing  beside 
her  near  the  door,  cried :  "Where  art  flying  now.  Jack  ? '' 


20  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

But  Jack  Potts  grew  more  positive  and  bellowed, 
"  Peel  her  wig !  we're  done  ! " 

And  slie  did  not  speak  a  word,  but  stood  huddled-up 
and  hooded ;  and  Lord  Levellier  caught  her  by  the  arm 
as  she  was  trying  a  dash  into  the  hall,  and  Sir  Upton 
Tomber  plucked  at  her  veil  and  raised  it,  and  whistled : 
"  Phew !  "  —  which  struck  the  rabble  below  with  awe 
of  the  cunning  of  the  Old  Buccaneer;  and  there  was 
no  need  for  them  to  hear  General  Abrane  say :  '^  Eight ! 
Jack,  we've  a  dead  one  in  hand,"  or  Jack  Potts  reply : 
"  It's  ten  thousand  pounds  clean  winged  away  from  my 
pocket,  like  a  string  of  wild  geese !  " 

The  excitement  of  the  varletry  in  the  square,  they  say, 
was  fearful  to  hear.  So  the  principal  noblemen  and 
gentlemen  concerned  thought  it  prudent  to  hurry  the 
young  woman  into  the  house  and  bar  the  door;  and 
there  she  was  very  soon  stripped  of  veil  and  blonde  false 
wig  with  long  curls,  the  whole  framing  of  her  artificial 
resemblance  to  Countess  Fanny,  and  she  proved  to  be  a 
good-looking  foreign  maid,  a  dark  one,  powdered,  trem- 
bling very  much,  but  not  so  frightened  upon  hearing  that 
her  penalty  for  the  share  she  had  taken  in  the  horrid 
imposture  practised  upon  them  was  to  receive  and  return 
a  salute  from  each  of  the  gentlemen  in  rotation;  which 
the  hussy  did  with  proper  submission;  and  Jack  Potts 
remarked,  that  "  it  was  an  honest  buss,  but  dear  at  ten 
thousand ! " 

When  you  have  been  the  victim  of  a  deceit,  the  ex- 


THE  ELOPEMENT  21 

planation  of  the  simplicity  of  the  trick  turns  all  the 
wonder  upon  yourself,  you  know,  and  the  backers  of  the 
Old  Buccaneer  and  the  wagerers  against  him  crowed  and 
groaned  in  chorus  at  the  maid's  narrative  of  how  the 
moment  Countess  Fanny  had  thrown  up  the  window  of 
her  carriage,  she  sprang  out  to  a  carriage  on  the  off  side, 
containing  Kirby,  and  how  she,  this  little  French  jade, 
sprang  in  to  take  her  place.  One  snap  of  the  fingers  and 
the  transformation  was  accomplished.  So  for  another 
kiss  all  round  they  let  her  go  free,  and  she  sat  at  the 
supper-table  prepared  for  Countess  Fanny  and  the  party 
by  order  of  Lord  Levellier,  and  amused  the  gentlemen 
with  stories  of  the  ladies  she  had  served,  English  and 
foreign.  And  that  is  how  men  are  taught  to  think  they 
know  our  sex  and  may  despise  it !  I  could  preach  them 
a  lesson.  Those  men  might  as  well  not  believe  in  the 
steadfastness  of  the  very  stars  because  one  or  two  are 
reported  lost  out  of  the  firmament,  and  now  and  then  we 
behold  a  whole  shoAver  of  fragments  descending.  The 
truth  is,  they  have  taken  a  stain  from  the  life  they  lead, 
and  are  troubled  puddles,  incapable  of  clear  reflection. 
To  listen  to  the  tattle  of  a  chatting  little  slut,  and  con- 
demn the  whole  sex  upon  her  testimony,  is  a  nice  idea 
of  justice.  Manj^  of  the  gentlemen  present  became  noto- 
rious as  woman-scorners,  whether  owing  to  Countess 
Fanny  or  other  things.  Lord  Levellier  was,  and  Lord 
Fleetwood,  the  wicked  man !  And  certainly  the  hearing 
of  naughty  stories  of  us  by  the  light  of  a  grievous  and 


22  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

vexatious  instance  of  our  misconduct  must  produce  an 
impression.  Countess  Fanny's  desperate  passion  for  a 
man  of  the  age  of  Kirby  struck  them  as  out  of  nature. 
They  talked  of  it  as  if  they  could  have  pardoned  her  a 
younger  lover. 

All  that  Lord  Cressett  said,  on  the  announcement  of 
the  flight  of  his  wife,  was  :  "  Ah !  Fan !  she  never  would 
run  in  my  ribbons." 

He  positively  declined  to  pursue.  Lord  Levellier 
would  not  attempt  to  follow  her  up  without  him,  as  it 
would  have  cost  money  and  he  wanted  all  that  he  could 
spare  for  his  telescopes  and  experiments.  "\"\nio,  then, 
was  the  gentleman  who  stopped  the  chariot,  with  his 
three  mounted  attendants,  on  the  road  to  the  sea,  on  the 
heath  by  the  great  Punch-Bowl? 

That  has  been  the  question  for  now  longer  than  half  a 
century,  in  fact  approaching  seventy  mortal  years.  No 
one  has  ever  been  able  to  say  for  certain. 

It  occurred  at  six  o'clock  on  the  summer  morning. 
Countess  Fanny  must  have  known  him,  and  not  once  did 
she  open  her  mouth  to  breathe  his  name.  Yet  she  had 
no  objection  to  talk  of  the  adventure,  and  how  Simon 
Fettle,  Captain  Kirby's  old  ship's  steward  in  South 
America,  seeing  horsemen  stationed  on  the  ascent  of  the 
highroad  bordering  the  Bowl,  which  is  miles  round  and 
deep,  made  the  postillion  cease  jogging,  and  sang  out  to 
his  master  for  orders,  and  Kirby  sang  back  to  him  to 
look  to  his  priming,  and  then  the  postillion  was  bidden 


THE  ELOPEMENT  23 

proceed,  and  lie  did  not  like  it,  but  he  had  to  deal  with 
pistols  behind,  where  men  feel  weak,  and  he  went  bob- 
bing on  the  saddle  in  dejection,  as  if  upon  his  very  heart 
he  jogged ;  and  soon  the  fray  commenced.  There  was 
very  little  parleying  between  determined  men. 

Simon  Fettle  was  a  plain  kindly  creature  without  a 
thought  of  malice,  who  kept  his  master's  accounts.  He 
fired  the  first  shot  at  the  foremost  man,  as  he  related  in 
after  days,  "to  reduce  the  odds."  Kirby  said  to  Countess 
Fanny,  just  to  comfort  her,  never  so  much  as  imagining 
she  would  be  afraid,  "  The  worst  will  be  a  bloody  shirt 
for  Simon  to  mangle,"  for  they  had  been  arranging  to 
live  cheaply  in  a  cottage  on  the  Continent,  and  Simon 
Fettle  to  do  the  washing.  She  could  not  help  laugh- 
ing outright.  But  when  the  Old  Buccaneer  was  down 
striding  in  the  battle,  she  took  a  pistol  and  descended 
likewise ;  and  she  used  it,  too,  and  loaded  again. 

She  had  not  to  use  it  a  second  time.  Kirby  pulled  the 
gentleman  off  his  horse,  wounded  in  the  thigh,  and  while 
dragging  him  to  Countess  Fanny  to  crave  her  pardon, 
a  shot  intended  for  Kirby  hit  the  poor  gentleman  in 
the  breast,  and  Kirby  stretched  him  at  his  length,  and 
Simon  and  he  disarmed  the  servant  who  had  fired.  One 
was  insensible,  one  flying,  and  those  two  on  the  ground. 
All  in  broad  daylight ;  but  so  lonely  is  that  spot,  nothing 
might  have  been  heard  of  it,  if  at  the  end  of  the  week  the 
postillion,  who  had  been  bribed  and  threatened  with 
terrible  threats  to  keep  his  tongue  from  wagging,  had 


24  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

not  begun  to  talk.  So  tlie  scene  of  tlie  encounter  was 
examined,  and  on  one  spot,  carefully  earthed  over,  blood- 
marks  were  discovered  in  the  green  sand.  People  in  the 
huts  on  the  hill-top,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  spoke  of 
having  heard  sounds  of  firing  while  they  were  at  break- 
fast, and  a  little  boy  named  Tommy  Wedger  said  he  saw 
a  dead  body  go  by  in  an  open  coach,  that  morning,  all 
bloody  and  mournful.  He  had  to  appear  before  the  mag- 
istrates, crying  terribly,  but  did  not  know  the  nature  of 
an  oath,  and  was  dismissed.  Time  came  when  the  boy 
learned  to  swear,  and  he  did,  and  that  he  had  seen  a 
beautiful  lady  firing  and  killing  men  like  pigeons  and 
partridges  ;  but  that  was  after  Charles  Dump,  the  postil- 
lion, had  been  telling  the  story. 

Those  who  credited  Charles  Dump's  veracity  specu- 
lated on  dozens  of  great  noblemen  and  gentlemen  known 
to  be  dying  in  love  with  Countess  Fanny.  And  this 
brings  us  to  another  family. 

I  do  not  say  I  knoAv  anything ;  I  do  but  lay  before  you 
the  evidence  we  have  to  fix  suspicion  upon  a  notorious 
character,  perfectly  capable  of  trying  to  thwart  a  man 
like  Kirby,  and  with  good  reason  to  try,  if  she  had  be- 
witched him  to  a  consuming  passion,  as  we  are  told. 

About  eleven  miles  distant,  as  the  crow  flies  and  a 
bold  huntsman  will  ride  in  the  heath  country,  from  the 
Punch-Bowl,  right  across  the  mounds  and  the  broad 
water,  lies  the  estate  of  the  Fakenhams,  who  intermarried 
with   the  Coplestones  of  the  iron  mines,  and  were  the 


THE  ELOPEMENT  26 

wealthiest  of  the  old  county  families  until  Curtis  Faken- 
hani  entered  upon  his  inheritance.  Money  with  him  was 
like  the  farm- wife's  dish  of  grain  she  tosses  in  showers  to 
her  fowls.  He  was  more  than  what  you  call  a  lady-killer, 
he  was  a  woman-eater.  His  pride  was  in  it  as  well  as 
his  taste,  and  when  men  are  like  that,  indeed  they  are 
devourers  ! 

Curtis  was  the  elder  brother  of  Commodore  Baldwin 
Fakenham,  whose  offspring,  like  his  own,  were  so 
strangely  mixed  up  with  Captain  Kirby's  children  by 
Countess  Fanny,  as  you  will  hear.  And  these  two 
brothers  were  sons  of  Geoffrey  Fakenham,  celebrated 
for  his  devotion  to  the  French  Countess  Jules 
d'Andreuze,  or  some  such  name,  a  courtly  gentleman, 
who  turned  Papist  on  his  death-bed  in  France,  in 
Brittany  somewhere,  not  to  be  separated  from  her  in 
the  next  world,  as  he  solemnly  left  word;  wickedly, 
many  think. 

To  show  the  oddness  of  things  and  how  opposite  to 
one  another  brothers  may  be,  his  elder,  the  uncle  of 
Curtis  and  Baldwin,  was  the  renowned  old  Admiral 
Fakenham,  better  known  along  our  sea-coasts  and  ports 
among  sailors  as  "Old  Showery,"  because  of  a  remark 
he  once  made  to  his  flag-captain,  when  cannon-balls 
were'  coming  thick  on  them  in  a  hard-fought  action. 
"  Hot  work,  sir,"  his  captain  said.  "  Showery,"  replied 
the  admiral,  as  his  cocked-hat  was  knocked  off  by  the 
wind  of  a  cannon-ball.     He   lost   both   lesrs   before   the 


26  THE  AMAZING-  MARRIAGE 

war  was  over,  and  said  merrily,  '' Stumps  for  life!" 
while  they  were  carrying  Mm  below  to  the  cockpit. 
In  my  girlhood  the  boys  were  always  bringing  home 
anecdotes  of  old  Admiral  Showery:  not  all  of  them 
true  ones,  perhaps,  but  they  fitted  him.  He  was  a 
rough  seaman,  fond,  as  they  say,  of  his  glass  and  his 
girl,  and  utterly  despising  his  brother  Geoffrey  for  the 
airs  he  gave  himself,  and  crawling  on  his  knees  to  a 
female  Parleyvoo ;  and  when  Geoffrey  died,  the  admiral 
drank  to  his  rest  in  the  grave :  ^-  TJiere's  to  my  brother 
Jeff,"  he  said,  and  flinging  away  the  dregs  of  his  glass : 
"  TJiere^s  to  the  Frog ! "  and  flinging  away  the  glass  to 
shivers  :  "  There's  to  the  Turncoat ! " 

He  salted  his  language  in  a  manner  I  cannot  repeat ; 
no  epithet  ever  stood  by  itself.  When  I  was  young  the 
boys  relished  these  dreadful  words  because  they  seemed 
to  smell  of  tar  and  battle-smoke,  when  every  English 
boy  was  for  being  a  sailor  and  daring  the  Black  Gen- 
tleman below.  In  all  truth,  the  bad  words  came  from 
him;  though  an  excellent  scholar  has  assured  me  they 
should  be  taken  for  aspirates,  and  mean  no  ha.rm ;  and 
so  it  may  be,  but  heartily  do  I  rejoice  that  aspirates 
have  been  dropped  by  people  of  birth;  for  you  might 
once  hear  titled  ladies  guilty  of  them  in  polite  society, 
I  do  assure  you. 

We  have  greatly  improved  in  that  respect.  They  say 
the  admiraPs  reputation  as  a  British  sailor  of  the  old 
school  made  him,  or  rather  his  name,  a  great  favourite 


THE  ELOPEMENT  27 

at  Court ;  but  to  Court  lie  could  not  be  got  to  go,  and 
if  the  tale  be  true,  their  Majesties  paid  him  a  visit  on 
board  his  ship,  in  harbour  one  day,  and  sailors  tell  you 
that  Old  Showery  gave  his  liege  lord  and  lady  a  com- 
mon dish  of  boiled  beef  with  carrots  and  turnips,  and 
a  plain  dumpling,  for  their  dinner,  with  ale  and  port 
wine,  the  merit  of  which  he  swore  to;  and  he  became 
so  elate,  that  after  the  cloth  was  removed,  he  danced 
them  a  hornpipe  on  his  pair  of  wooden  legs,  whistling 
his  tune,  and  holding  his  full  tumbler  of  hot  grog  in  his 
hand  all  the  while,  without  so  much  as  the  spilling 
of  a  drop !  —  so  earnest  was  he  in  everything  he  did. 
They  say  his  limit  was  two  bottles  of  port  wine  at  a 
sitting,  with  his  glass  of  hot  grog  to  follow,  and  not 
a  soul  could  induce  him  to  go  beyond  that.  In  addition 
to  being  a  great  seaman,  he  was  a  very  religious  man 
and  a  stout  churchman. 

Well,  now,  the  Curtis  Fakenham  of  Captain  Kirby's 
day  had  a  good  deal  of  his  uncle  as  well  as  his  father  in 
him,  the  spirit  of  one  and  the  outside  of  the  other ;  and 
favoured  or  not,  he  had  been  distinguished  among  Coun- 
tess Fanny's  adorers:  she  certainly  chose  to  be  silent 
about  the  name  of  the  assailant.  And  it  has  been  at- 
tested on  oath  that  two  days  and  a  night  subsequent  to 
the  date  furnished  by  Charles  Dump,  Curtis  Fakenham 
was  brought  to  his  house  Hollis  Grange  lame  of  a  leg, 
with  a  shot  in  his  breast,  that  he  carried  to  the  family 
vault  J  and  his  head  gamekeeper,  John  Wiltshire,  a  reso- 


28  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

lute  fellow,  was  missing  from  that  hour.  Some  said 
they  had  a  quarrel,  and  Curtis  was  wounded  and  John 
Wiltshire  killed.  Curtis  was  known  to  have  been 
extremely  attached  to  the  man.  Yet  when  Wiltshire 
was  inquired  for,  he  let  fall  a  word  of  "  having  more  of 
Wiltshire  than  ivas  agreeable  to  Hampshire^^  —  his  county. 
People  asked  what  that  meant.  Yet  according  to  the 
tale,  it  was  the  surviving  servant,  by  whom  he,  or  who- 
ever it  may  have  been,  was  accidentally  shot. 

We  are  in  a  perfect  tangle.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
was  never  denied  that  Curtis  and  John  Wiltshire  were 
in  London  together  at  the  time  of  Countess  Fanny's 
flight :  and  Curtis  Fakenham  was  one  of  the  proces- 
sion of  armed  gentlemen  conducting  her  in  her  carriage, 
as  they  supposed;  and  he  was  known  to  have  started 
off,  on  the  discovery  of  the  cheat,  with  horrible  impre- 
cations against  Frenchwomen.  It  became  known,  too, 
that  horses  of  his  were  standing  saddled  in  his  inn- 
yard  at  midnight.  And  more,  Charles  Dump  the  postil- 
lion was  taken  secretly  to  set  eyes  on  him  as  they 
wheeled  him  in  his  garden-walk,  and  he  vowed  it  was 
the  identical  gentleman.  But  this  coming  by  and  by 
to  the  ear  of  Curtis,  he  had  Charles  Dump  fetched  over 
to  confront  him ;  and  then  the  man  made  oath  that  he 
had  never  seen  Mr.  Curtis  Fakenham  anywhere  but 
there,  in  his  own  house  at  Hollis !  One  does  not 
really  know  what  to  think  of  it ! 

This  postillion  made  a  small  fortune.     He  was  every- 


THE  ELOPEMENT  29 

where  in  request.  People  were  never  tired  of  asking 
him  how  he  behaved  while  the  fight  was  going  on,  and 
he  always  answered  that  he  sat  as  close  to  his  horse 
as  he  could,  and  did  not  dream  of  dismounting;  for, 
he  said,  ^^he  ivas  a  figure  on  a  horse,  and  naught 
when  off  iV^  His  repetition  of  the  story,  with  some 
adornments,  and  that  same  remark,  made  him  the 
popular  man  of  the  county;  people  said  he  might 
enter  Parliament,  and  I  think  at  one  time  it  was  pos- 
sible. But  a  great  success  is  full  of  temptations.  After 
being  hired  at  inns  to  fill  them  with  his  account  of  the 
battle,  and  tipped  by  travellers  from  London  to  show 
the  spot,  he  set  up  for  himself  as  innkeeper,  and  would 
have  flourished,  only  he  had  contracted  habits  on  his 
rounds,  and  he  fell  to  contradicting  himself,  so  that  he 
came  to  be  called  Lying  Charley ;  and  the  people  of  the 
country  said  it  was  "/le  ic7io  drained  the  Funch-Boid,  for 
though  he  helped  to  put  the  capital  into  it,  he  took  all  the 
interest  out  of  it  J' 

Yet  we  have  the  doctor  of  the  village  of  Ipley,  Dr. 
Cawthorne,  a  noted  botanist,  assuring  us  of  the  absolute 
credibility  of  Charles  Dump,  whom  he  attended  in  the 
poor  creature's  last  illness,  when  Charles  Dump  con- 
fessed he  had  lived  in  mortal  terror  of  Squire  Curtis, 
and  had  got  the  trick  of  lying,  through  fear  of  telling 
the  truth.     Hence  his  ruin. 

So  he  died  delirious  and  contrite.  Cawthorne,  the 
great  Turf  man,  inherited  a  portrait  of   him    from   his 


30  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

father  the  doctor.  It  was  often  the  occasion  of  the 
story  bemg  told  over  again,  and  used  to  hang  in  the 
patient's  reception-room,  next  to  an  oil  painting  of 
the  Punch-Bowl,  an  admired  landscape  picture  by  a 
local  artist,  highly-toned  and  true  to  every  particular 
of  the  scene,  with  the  bright  yellow  road  winding  up- 
hill, and  the  banks  of  brilliant  purple  heath,  and  a 
white  thorn  in  bloom  quite  beautiful,  and  the  green  fir 
trees,  and  the  big  Bowl  black  as  a  cauldron,  —  indeed  a 
perfect  feast  of  harmonious  contrasts  in  colours. 

And  now  you  know  how  it  is  that  the  names  of 
Captain  Kirby  and  Curtis  Fakenham  are  alive  to  the 
present  moment  in  the  district. 

We  lived  a  happy  domestic  life  in  those  old 
coaching  days,  when  county  affairs  and  county  people 
were  the  topics  of  firesides,  and  the  country  enclosed 
us  to  make  us  feel  snug  in  our  own  importance. 
My  opinion  is,  that  men  and  women  grow  to  their 
dimensions  only  where  such  is  the  case.  We  had  our 
alarms  from  the  outside  now  and  again,  but  we  soon 
relapsed  to  dwell  upon  our  private  business  and  our 
pleasant  little  hopes  and  excitements;  the  courtships 
and  the  crosses  and  the  scandals,  the  tea-parties  and 
the  dances,  and  how  the  morning  looked  after  the 
stormy  night  had  passed,  and  the  coach  coming  down 
the  hill  with  a  box  of  news  and  perhaps  a  curious 
passenger  to  drop  at  the  inn.  I  do  believe  we  had  a 
liking  for  the    very    highwaymen,    if    they    had    any 


MEANDERINGS   OF   DAME   GOSSIP  31 

reputation  for  civility.  What  I  call  liuman  events, 
tMngs  concerning  you  and  me^  instead  of  the  deafen- 
ing catastrophes  now  affl.icting  and  taking  all  conver- 
sation out  of  us,  had  their  natural  interest  then.  We 
studied  the  face  of  each  morning  as  it  came,  and 
speculated  upon  the  secret  of  the  thing  it  might  have 
in  store  for  us  or  our  heroes  and  heroines;  we  thought 
of  them  more  than  of  ourselves.  Long  after  the 
adventures  of  the  Punch-Bowl,  our  country  was  anxious 
about  Countess  Fanny  and  the  Old  Buccaneer,  wonder- 
ing where  they  were  and  whether  they  were  prospering, 
whether  they  were  just  as  much  in  love  as  ever,  and 
which  of  them  would  bury  the  other,  and  vrhat  the 
foreign  people  abroad  thought  of  that  strange  pair. 


CHAPTER  III 


COXTIXUATIOX  OF  THE  IXTRODUCTORY  MEAXDERIXGS  OF 
DAME  GOSSIP,  TOGETHER  WITH  HER  SUDDEX  EXTIXC- 
TION 

I  HAVE  still  time  before  me,  according  to  the  terms 
of  my  agreement  with  the  person  to  whom  I  have,  I 
fear  foolishly,  entrusted  the  letters  and  documents  of 
a  story  surpassing  ancient  as  well  as  modern  in  the 
wonderment  it  causes,  that  would  make  the  law 
courts    bless    their    hearts,   judges    no    less    than    the 


32  THE   AMAZING  MAKRIAGE 

barristers,  to  have  it  running  through,  them  day  by 
day,  with  every  particular  to  wrangle  over,  and  many 
to  serve  as  a  text  for  the  pulpit.     So  to  proceed. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  the  postillion  Charles 
Dump  is  not  represented,  and  I  have  no  conception 
of  the  reason  why  not,  sitting  on  horseback,  in  the 
portrait  in  the  possession  of  the  Cawthorne  family.  I 
have  not  seen  it,  I  am  bound  to  admit.  We  had 
offended  Dr.  Cawthorne  by  once  in  an  urgent  case 
calling  in  another  doctor,  who,  he  would  have  it,  was 
a  quack,  that  ought  to  have  killed  us,  and  we  ceased 
to  visit;  but  a  gentleman  who  was  an  established 
patient  of  Dr.  Cawthorne's  and  had  frequent  opportu- 
nities of  judging  the  portrait,  in  the  course  of  a  chronic 
malady,  describes  Charles  Dump  on  his  legs  as  a  small 
man  looking  diminished  from  a  very  much  longer  one 
by  shrinkage  in  thickish  wrinkles  from  the  shoulders 
to  the  shanks.  His  hat  is  enormous  and  very  gay. 
He  is  rather  of  sad  countenance.  An  elevation  of  his 
collar  behind  the  ears,  and  pointed  at  the  neck,  gives 
you  notions  of  his  having  dropped  from  some  hook. 
He  stands  with  his  forefinger  extended,  like  a  disused 
semaphore-post,  that  seems  tumbling  and  desponding 
on  the  hill  by  the  highroad,  in  his  attitude  while  tell- 
ing the  tale;  if  standing  it  may  be  called,  where  the 
whole  figure  appears  imploring  for  a  seat.  That  was 
his  natural  position,  as  one  would  suppose  any  artist 
must  have  thought,  and  a  horse  beneath  him.     But  it 


MEANDERINGS   OF  DAME   GOSSIP  33 

has  been  suggested  that  the  artist  in  question  was  no 
painter  of  animals.  Then  why  did  he  not  get  a  painter 
of  animals  to  put  in  the  horse?  It  is  vain  to  ask, 
though  it  is  notorious  that  artists  combine  without 
bickering  to  do  these  things;  and  one  puts  his  name 
on  the  animal,  the  other  on  the  human  being  or  land- 
scape. 

My  informant  adds,  that  the  prominent  feature,  tell- 
ing a  melancholy  tale  of  its  own,  is  of  sanguine  colour, 
and  while  plainly  in  the  act  of  speaking,  Charles  Dump 
might  be  fancied  about  to  drop  off  to  sleep.  He  was 
impressed  by  the  dreaminess  of  the  face;  and  I  must 
say  I  regard  him  as  an  interesting  character.  Daring 
my  girlhood  Napoleon  Bonaparte  alone  would  have 
been  his  rival  for  filling  an  inn  along  our  roads.  I 
have  known  our  boys  go  to  bed  obediently  and  get  up 
at  night  to  run  three  miles  to  The  Wheatsheaf, 
only  to  stand  on  the  bench  or  traveller's-rest  outside 
the  window  and  look  in  at  Charles  Dump  reciting, 
with  just  room  enough  in  the  crowd  to  point  his  finger, 
as  his  way  was. 

He  left  a  child,  Mary  Dump,  who  grew  up  to  become 
lady's  maid  to  Livia  Fakenham,  daughter  of  Curtis, 
the  beauty  of  Hampshire,  equalled  by  no  one  save 
her  cousin  Henrietta  Fakenham,  the  daughter  of 
Commodore  Baldwin;  and  they  were  two  different 
kinds  of  beauties,  not  to  be  compared,  and  different 
were  their  fortunes;    for  this  lady  was  likened  to  the 


34  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

sun  going  down  on  a  clondy  noon,  and  that  lady  to 
the  moon  riding  through,  a  stormy  night.  Livia  was  the 
young  widow  of  Lord  Duffiekl  when  she  accepted  the 
Earl  of  Fleetwood,  and  was  his  third  countess,  and 
again  a  widow  at  eight  and  twenty,  and  stepmother 
to  young  Croesus,  the  Earl  of  Fleetwood  of  my  story. 
Mary  Dump  testifies  to  her  kindness  of  heart  to  her 
dependents.  If  we  are  to  speak  of  goodness,  I  am 
afraid  there  are  other  witnesses. 

I  resent  being  warned  that  my  time  is  short  and  that 
I  have  wasted  much  of  it  over  "  the  attractive  Charles." 
AVhat  I  have  done  I  have  done  with  a  purpose,  and  it 
must  be  a  story-teller  devoid  of  the  rudiments  of  his  art 
who  can  complain  of  my  dwelling  on  Charles  Dump,  for 
the  world  to  have  a  pause  and  pin  its  faith  to  him, 
which  it  would  not  do  to  a  grander  person  —  that  is,  as 
a  peg.  Wonderful  events,  however  true  they  are,  must 
be  attached  to  something  common  and  familiar,  to  make 
then  credible.  Charles  Dump,  I  say,  is  like  a  front- 
page picture  to  a  history  of  those  old  quiet  yet  exciting 
days  in  England,  and  when  once  you  have  seized  him 
the  whole  period  is  alive  to  you,  as  it  was  to  me  in  the 
delicious  dulness  I  loved,  that  made  us  thirsty  to  hear 
of  adventures  and  able  to  enjoy  to  the  utmost  every 
thing  occurring.  The  man  is  no  more  attractive  to  me 
than  a  lump  of  clay.  How  could  he  be?  But  suppos- 
ing I  took  up  the  lump  and  told  you  that  there  where  I 
fomid  it,  that  lump  of  day  had  been  rolled  over  and  flung 


MEANDERINGS   OF   DAME  GOSSIP  85 

off  by  the  left  wheel  of  the  prophet'' s  Chariot  of  Fire  before 
it  mounted  aloft  and  disappeared  in  the  heavens  above! — 
you  would  examine  it  and  cherish,  it  and  have  the  scene 
present  with  you,  you  may  be  sure:  and  magnificent 
descriptions  would  not  be  one-half  so  persuasive.  And 
that  is  what  we  call,  in  my  profession,  Art,  if  you 
please. 

So  to  continue:  The  Earl  of  Cressett  fell  from  his 
coach-box  in  a  fit,  and  died  of  it,  a  fortnight  after 
the  flight  of  his  wife ;  and  the  people  said  she  might  as 
well  have  waited.  Kirby  and  Countess  Fanny  were  at 
Lucerne  or  Lausanne,  or  some  such  place  in  Switzerland 
when  the  news  reached  them,  and  Kirby  without  losing 
an  hour  laid  hold  of  an  English  clergyman  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  and  put  him  through  the  ceremony  of  cele- 
brating his  lawful  union  with  the  beautiful  young  creature 
he  adored.  And  this  he  did,  he  said,  for  the  world  to 
guard  his  Fan  in  a  jvider  circle  than  his  two  arms  could 
compass,  if  not  quite  so  well. 

So  the  Old  Buccaneer  was  ever  after  that  her  lawful 
husband,  and  as  his  wedded  wife,  not  wedded  to  a  fool, 
she  was  an  example  to  her  sex,  like  nxany  another 
woman  who  has  begun  badly  with  a  light-headed  mate. 
It  is  hard  enough  for  a  man  to  be  married  to  a  fool,  but 
a  man  is  only  half-cancelled  by  that  burden,  it  has  been 
said ;  whereas  a  woman  finds  herself  on  board  a  rudder- 
less vessel,  and  often  the  desperate  thing  she  does  is  to 
avoid  perishing!      Ten  months,   or   eleven,   some    say, 


36  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

following  the  proclamation  of  the  marriage-tie,  a  son 
was  born  to  Countess  Fanny,  close  by  the  castle  of 
Chillon  on  the  lake,  and  he  had  the  name  of  Chillon 
Switzer  John  Kirby  given  to  him  to  celebrate  the  fact. 
Two  years  later  the  girl  was  born,  and  for  the  reason 
of  her  first  seeing  the  light  in  that  Austrian  province, 
she  was  christened  Carinthia  Jane.  She  was  her  old 
father's  pet;  but  Countess  Fanny  gloried  in  the  boy. 
She  had  fancied  she  would  be  a  childless  woman  before 
he  gave  sign  of  coming ;  and  they  say  she  wrote  a  little 
volume  of  Meditations  in  Prospect  of  Approaching  Mother- 
hood, for  the  guidance  of  others  in  a  similar  situation. 
I  have  never  been  able  to  procure  the  book  or  pam- 
phlet, but  I  know  she  was  the  best  of  mothers,  and  of 
wives  too.  And  she,  with  her  old  husbaiidr- growing 
like  a  rose  out  of  a  weather-beaten  rock,  proved  she  was 
that,  among  those  handsome  foreign  officers  poorly 
remarkable  for  their  morals.  Not  once  had  the  Old 
Buccaneer  to  teach  them  a  lesson.  Think  of  it  and  you 
will  know  that  her  feet  did  not  stray  —  nor  did  her 
pretty  eyes.  Her  heart  was  too  full  for  the  cravings  of 
vanity.  Innocent  ladies  who  get  their  husbands  into 
scrapes  are  innocent,  perhaps;  but  knock  you  next 
door  in  their  bosoms,  where  the  soul  resides,  and  ask 
for  information  of  how  innocence  and  uncleanness  may 
go  together.  Kirby  purchased  a  mine  in  Carinthia,  on 
the  borders  of  Styria,  and  worked  it  himself.  His 
native  land  displeased  him,  so  that  he  would  not  have 


MEANDERINGS   OF  DAME   GOSSIP  37 

been  unwilling  to  see  Chillon  enter  the  Austrian  ser- 
vice, which,  the  young  man  was  inclined  for,  subsequent 
to  his  return  to  his  parents  from  one  of  the  English 
public  schools,  notwithstanding  his  passionate  love  for 
Old  England.  But  Lord  Levellier  explained  the  mys- 
tery in  a  letter  to  his  half-forgiven  sister,  praising  the 
boy  for  his  defence  of  his  mother's  name  at  the  school, 
where  a  big  brutal  fellow  sneered  at  her,  and  Chillon 
challenged  him  to  sword  or  pistol ;  and  then  he  walked 
down  to  the  boy's  home  in  Staffordshire  to  force  him  to 
fight;  and  the  father  of  the  boy  made  him  offer  an 
apology.  That  was  not  much  balm  to  Master  Chillon's 
wound.  He  returned  to  his  mother  quite  heavy,  unlike 
a  young  man ;  and  the  unhappy  lady,  though  she  knew 
him  to  be  bitterly  sensitive  on  the  point  of  honour,  and 
especially  as  to  everything  relating  to  her,  saw  herself 
compelled  to  tell  him  the  history  of  her  life,  to  save 
him,  as  she  thought,  from  these  chivalrous  vindications 
of  her  good  name.  She  may  have  even  painted  herself 
worse  than  she  was,  both  to  excuse  her  brother's  miserli- 
ness to  her  son  and  the  world's  evil  speaking  of  her. 
Wisely  or  not,  she  chose  this  course  devotedly  to  pro- 
tect him  from  the  perils  she  foresaw  in  connection  with 
the  name  of  the  once  famous  Countess  Fanny  in  the 
British  Isles.  And  thus  are  we  stricken  by  the  days  of 
our  youth.  It  is  impossible  to  moralize  conveniently 
when  one  is  being  hurried  by  a  person  at  one's  elbow. 
So  the  young  man  heard  his  mother  out  and  kissed  her, 


38  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

and  then  lie  went  secretly  to  Vienna  and  enlisted  and 
served  for  a  year  as  a  private  in  the  regiment  of  Hussars 
called,  my  papers  tell  me,  Liechtenstein,  and  what  with 
his  good  conduct  and  the  help  of  Kirby's  friends,  he 
would  have  obtained  a  commission  from  the  emperor, 
when,  at  the  right  moment  to  keep  a  sprig  of  Kirby's 
growth  for  his  country.  Lord  Levellier  sent  word  that  he 
was  down  for  a  cornetcy  in  a  British  regiment  of  dra- 
goons. Chillon  came  home  from  a  garrison  town,  and 
there  was  a  consultation  about  his  future  career.  Shall 
it  be  England  ?  Shall  it  be  Austria  ?  Countess  Eanny's 
voice  was  for  England,  and  she  carried  the  vote,  knowing 
though  she  did  that  it  signified  separation,  and  it  might 
be  alienation  —  where  her  son  would  chance  to  hear 
things  he  could  not  refute.  She  believed  that  her  son  by 
such  a  man  as  Kirby  would  be  of  use  to  his  country,  and 
her  voice,  against  herself,  was  for  England. 

It  broke  her  heart.  If  she  failed  to  receive  the  regu- 
lar letter,  she  pined  and  was  disconsolate.  He  has  heard 
more  of  me !  was  in  her  mind.  Her  husband  sat  look- 
ing at  her  with  his  old  large  grey  glassy  eyes.  You 
would  have  fancied  him  awaiting  her  death  as  the  signal 
for  his  own  release.  But  she,  poor  mother,  behind  her 
weeping  lids  beheld  her  son's  filial  love  of  her  wounded 
and  bleeding.  When  there  was  anything  to  be  done  for 
her,  old  Kirby  was  astir.  When  it  was  nothing,  either 
in  physic  or  assistance,  he  was  like  a  great  corner  of 
rock.     You  may  indeed  imagine  grief  in  the  very  rock 


MEANDERINGS   OF   DAIVIE   GOSSIP  39 

that  sees  its  flower  fading  to  the  withered  shred.  On 
the  last  night  of  her  life  this  old  man  of  past  ninety 
carried  her  in  his  arms  up  a  flight  of  stairs  to  her  bed. 

A  week  after  her  burial,  Kirby  was  found  a  corpse  in 
the  mountain  forest.  His  having  called  the  death  of  his 
darling  his  lightning-stroke  must  have  been  the  origin  of 
the  report  that  he  died  of  lightning.  He  touched  not  a 
morsel  of  food  from  the  hour  of  the  dropping  of  the 
sod  on  her  coflin  of  ebony  wood.  An  old  crust  of  their 
mahogany  bread,  supposed  at  first  to  be  a  specimen  of 
quartz,  was  found  in  one  of  his  coat  pockets.  He  kissed 
his  girl  Carinthia  before  going  out  on  his  last  journey 
from  home,  and  spoke  some  wandering  words.  The 
mine  had  not  been  worked  for  a  year.  She  thought  she 
would  find  him  at  the  mouth  of  the  shaft,  where  he 
would  sometimes  be  sitting  and  staring,  already  dead  at 
heart  with  the  death  he  saw  coming  to  the  beloved 
woman.  They  had  to  let  her  down  with  ropes,  that  she 
might  satisfy  herself  he  was  not  below.  She  and  her 
great  dog  and  a  faithful  man-servant  discovered  the  body 
in  the  forest.  Chillon  arrived  from  England  to  see  the 
common  grave  of  both  his  parents. 

And  now  good-bye  to  sorroAv  for  a  while.  Keep  your 
tears  for  the  living.  And  first  I  am  going  to  describe  to 
you  the  young  Earl  of  Eleetwood,  son  of  the  strange 
Welsh  lady,  the  richest  nobleman  of  his  time,  and  how 
he  pursued  and  shunned  the  lady  who  had  fascinated 
him,   Henrietta,  the   daughter   of   Commodore  Baldwin 


40  THE  AMAZING   MAREIAGE 

Fakenham ;  and  how  he  met  Carinthia  Jane ;  and  con- 
cerning that  lovely  Henrietta  and  Chillon  Kirby-Level- 
lier ;  and  of  the  young  poet  of  ordinary  parentage,  and 
the  giant  Captain  Abrane,  and  Livia  the  widowed  Coun- 
tess of  Fleetwood,  Henrietta's  cousin,  daughter  of  Cur- 
tis Fakenham ;  and  numbers  of  others ;  Lord  Levellier, 
Lord  Brailstone,  Lord  Simon  Pitscrew,  Chumley  Potts, 
young  Ambrose  Mallard ;  and  the  English  pugilist,  such 
a  man  of  honour  though  he  drank ;  and  the  adventures 
of  Madge,  Carinthia  Jane's  maid.  Just  a  few  touches. 
And  then  the  Marriage  dividing  Great  Britain  into 
halves,  taking  sides.  After  that,  I  trust  you  may  go  on, 
as  I  "would  carry  you  were  we  all  twenty  years  younger, 
had  I  but  sooner  been  in  possession  of  these  treasured 
papers.  I  promise  you  excitement  enough,  if  justice  is 
done  to  them.  But  I  must  and  will  describe  the  wed- 
ding. This  young  Earl  of  Fleetwood,  you  should  know, 
was  a  very  powder-magazine  of  ambition,  and  never 
would  he  break  his  word:  which  is  right,  if  Ave  are 
properly  careful;  and  so  he  — 

She  ceases.  According  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  the 
venerable  lady's  time  has  passed.  An  extinguisher  de- 
scends on  her,  giving  her  the  likeness  of  one  under 
condemnation  of  the  Most  Holy  Inquisition,  in  the 
ranks  of  an  auto  da  fe;  and  singularly  resembling  that 
victim  at  the  first  sharp  bite  of  the  flames  she  will  be 
when  she  hears  the  version  of  her  story. 


FAREWELL  TO   AN   OLD   HOME  41 

CHAPTEE    IV 

MORNING   AND    FAREWELL    TO    AN    OLD    HOME 

Brother  and  sister  were  about  to  leave  the  moun- 
tain-land for  England.  They  had  not  gone  to  bed  over- 
night, and  from  the  windows  of  their  deserted  home, 
a  little  before  dawn,  they  saw  the  dwindled  moon,  a 
late  riser,  break  through  droves  of  hunted  cloud,  di- 
rectly topping  their  ancient  guardian  height,  the  triple 
peak  and  giant  of  the  range,  friendlier  in  his  name 
than  in  aspect  for  the  two  young  people  clinging  to 
the  scene  they  v/ere  to  quit.  His  name  recalled  old 
days:  the  apparition  of  his  head  among  the  heavens 
drummed  on  their  sense  of  banishment. 

To  the  girl,  this  was  a  division  of  her  life,  and  the 
dawn  held  the  sword.  She  felt  herself  midswing  across 
a  gulf  that  was  the  grave  of  one  half,  without  a  light 
of  promise  for  the  other.  Her  passionate  excess  of 
attachment  to  her  buried  home  robbed  the  future  of 
any  colours  it  might  have  worn  to  bid  a  young  heart 
quicken.  And  England,  though  she  was  of  British 
blood,  was  a  foreign  place  to  her,  not  alluring:  her 
brother  had  twice  come  out  of  England  reserved  in 
speech;  her  mother's  talk  of  England  had  been  un- 
happy ;  her  father  had  suffered  ill-treatment  there  from 
a  brutal  institution  termed  the  Admiralty,  and  had  never 


42  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

regretted  the  not  seeing  England  again.  The  thought 
that  she  was  bound  thitherward  enfolded  her  like  a 
frosty  mist.  But  these  bare  walls,  these  loud  floors, 
chill  rooms,  dull  windows,  and  the  vault-sounding  of  the 
ghostly  house,  everywhere  the  absence  of  the  faces  in 
the  house,  told  her  she  had  no  choice,  she  must  go. 
The  appearance  of  her  old  friend  the  towering  mountain- 
height,  up  a  blue  night-sky,  compelled  her  swift  mind 
to  see  herself  far  away,  yearning  to  him  out  of  exile,  an 
exile  that  had  no  local  features  ;  she  would  not  imagine 
them  to  give  a  centre  of  warmth,  her  wilful  grief  pre- 
ferred the  blank.  It  resembled  death  in  seeming  some 
hollowness  behind  a  shroud,  which  we  shudder  at. 

The  room  was  lighted  by  a  stable-lantern  on  a 
kitchen-table.  Their  seat  near  the  window  was  a 
rickety  garden-bench  rejected  in  the  headlong  sale  of 
the  furniture ;  and  when  she  rose,  unable  to  continue 
motionless  while  the  hosts  of  illuminated  cloud  flew  fast, 
she  had  to  warn  her  brother  to  preserve  his  balance. 
He  tactily  did  so,  aware  of  the  necessity. 

She  walked  up  and  down  the  long  seven-windowed 
saloon,  haunted  by  her  footfall,  trying  to  think,  chafing 
at  his  quietness  and  acknowledging  that  he  did  well 
to  be  quiet.  They  had  finished  their  packing  of  boxes 
and  of  wearing  apparel  for  the  journey.  There  was 
nothing  to  think  of,  nothing  further  to  talk  of,  nothing 
for  her  to  do  save  to  sit  and  look,  and  deaden  her  throbs 
by  counting  them.     She  soon  returned  to  her  seat  beside 


FAKEWELL  TO  AN   OLD  HOME  43 

her  brother,  with  the  marvel  in  her  breast  that  the 
house  she  desired  so  much  to  love  should  be  cold  and 
repel  her  now  it  was  a  vacant  shell.  Her  memories 
could  not  hang  within  it  anywhere.  She  shut  her  eyes 
to  be  with  the  images  of  the  dead,  conceiving  the  method 
as  her  brother's  happy  secret,  and  imitated  his  posture, 
elbows  propped  on  knees  to  support  the  chin.  His 
quietness  breathed  of  a  deeper  love  than  her  own. 

Meanwhile  the  high  wind  had  sunk ;  the  moon,  after 
pushing  up  her  withered  half  to  the  zenith,  was  climb- 
ing the  dusky  edge,  revealed  fitfully ;  threads  and  wisps 
of  thin  vapour  travelled  along  a  falling  gale,  and 
branched  from  the  dome  of  the  sky  in  migratory  broken 
lines,  like  mid  birds  shifting  the  order  of  flight,  north 
and  east,  where  the  dawn  sat  in  a  web,  but  as  yet  had  done 
no  more  than  shoot  up  a  glow  along  the  central  heavens, 
in  amid  the  waves  of  deepened  cloud:  a  mirror  for 
night  to  see  her  dark  self  in  her  own  hue.  A  shiver 
between  the  silent  couple  pricked  their  wits,  and  she 
said :  "  Chillon,  shall  we  run  out  and  call  the  morning  ? '' 

It  was  an  old  game  of  theirs,  encouraged  by  their 
hearty  father,  to  be  out  in  the  early  hour  on  a  rise  of 
ground  near  the  house  and  "call  the  morning.''  Her 
brother  was  glad  of  the  challenge,  and  upon  one  of 
the  yawns  following  a  sleepless  night,  replied  with  a 
return  to  boyishness :  "  Yes,  if  you  like.  It's  the  last 
time  we  shall  do  her  the  service  here.     Let's  go.'^ 

They  sprang  up  together  and  the  bench  fell  behind 


44  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

them.  Swinging  the  lantern  he  carried  inconsiderately, 
the  ring  of  it  was  left  on  his  finger,  and  the  end  of 
candle  rolled  out  of  the  crazy  frame  to  the  floor  and 
was  extinguished.  Chillon  had  no  match-box.  He 
said  to  her:  — 

"What  do  you  think  of  the  window?  —  we've  done 
it  before,  Carin.  Better  than  groping  down  stairs  and 
passages  blocked  with  lumber.'^ 

"  I'm  ready,"  she  said,  and  caught  at  her  skirts  by 
instinct  to  prove  her  readiness  on  the  spot. 

A  drop  of  a  dozen  feet  or  so  from  the  French  window 
to  a  flower-bed  was  not  very  difficult.  Her  father  had 
taught  her  how  to  jump,  besides  the  how  of  many  other 
practical  things.  She  leapt  as  lightly  as  her  brother, 
never  touching  earth  Avith  her  hands ;  and  rising  from 
the  proper  contraction  of  the  legs  in  taking  the  descent, 
she  quoted  her  father  :  "  Mean  it  ivJien  you're  doing  it.'' 

"  Fo7'  no  enemy's  shot  is  equal  to  a  iveak  heart  in  the 
act,"  Chillon  pursued  the  quotation,  laying  his  hand  on 
her  shoulder  for  a  sign  of  approval.  She  looked  up  at 
him. 

They  passed  down  the  garden  and  a  sloping  meadow 
to  a  brook  swollen  by  heavy  rains ;  over  the  brook  on 
a  narrow  plank,  and  up  a  steep  and  stony  pathway, 
almost  a  watercourse,  between  rocks,  to  another  meadow, 
level  with  the  house,  that  led  ascending  through  a 
firwood ;  and  there  the  change  to  thicker  darkness  told 
them  light  was  abroad,  though  whether  of  the  clouded 


FAREWELL  TO  AN   OLD   HOME  45 

moon  or  of  tlie  first  grey  of  the  quiet  revolution  was 
uncertain.  Metallic  light  of  a  subterranean  realm,  it 
might  have  been  thought. 

"You  remember  everything  of  father,'^  Carinthia 
said. 

"We  both  do/'  said  Chillon. 

She  pressed  her  brother's  arm.  "  We  will.  We  will 
never  forget  anything." 

Beyond  the  firwood  light  was  visibly  the  dawn's. 
Half  way  down  the  ravines  it  resembled  the  light  cast 
off  a  torrent  water.  It  lay  on  the  grass  like  a  sheet  of 
unreflecting  steel,  and  was  a  face  without  a  smile  above. 
Their  childhood  ran  along  the  tracks  to  the  forest  by 
the  light,  which  was  neither  dim  nor  cold,  but  grave; 
presenting  tree  and  shrub  and  dwarf  growth  and  grass 
austerely,  not  deepening  or  confusing  them.  They 
wound  their  way  by  borders  of  crag,  seeing  in  a  dell 
below  the  mouth  of  the  idle  mine  begirt  Avith  weedy  and 
shrub-hung  rock,  a  dripping  semi-circle.  Farther  up 
they  came  on  the  flat  juniper  and  crossed  a  wet  ground- 
thicket  of  the  whortleberry  :  their  feet  were  in  the  moist 
moss  among  sprigs  of  heath ;  and  a  great  fir  tree  stretched 
his  length,  a  peeled  multitude  of  his  dead  fellows  leaned 
and  stood  upright  in  the  midst  of  scattered  fire-stained 
members,  and  through  their  skeleton  limbs  the  sheer 
precipice  of  slate-rock  of  the  bulk  across  the  chasm, 
nursery  of  hawk  and  eagle,  wore  a  thin  blue  tinge,  the 
sign  of  warmer  light  abroad. 


46  THE  AMAZING  MARKIAGB 

"  This  way,  my  brother !  "  cried  Carinthia,  shuddering 
at  a  path  he  was  about  to  follow. 

Dawn  in  the  mountain-land  is  a  meeting  of  many 
friends.  The  pinnacle,  the  forest-head,  the  latchen- 
tufted  mound,  rock-bastion  and  defiant  cliff,  and  giant 
of  the  triple  peak,  were  in  view,  clearly  lined  for  a 
common  recognition,  but  all  were  figures  of  solid  gloom, 
unfeatured  and  bloomless.  Another  minute  and  they 
had  flung  off  their  mail  and  changed  to  various,  indented, 
intricate,  succinct  in  ridge,  scar  and  channel;  and  they 
had  all  a  look  of  watchfulness  that  made  them  one 
company.  The  smell  of  rock-waters  and  roots  of  herb 
and  moss  grew  keen ;  air  became  a  wine  that  raised  the 
breast  high  to  breathe  it ;  an  uplifting  coolness  pervaded 
the  heights.  What  wonder  that  the  moimtain-bred  girl 
should  let  fly  her  voice.  The  natural  carol  woke  an  echo. 
She  did  not  repeat  it. 

"  And  we  will  not  forget  our  home,  Chillon,"  she  said, 
touching  him  gently  to  comfort  some  saddened  feeling. 

The  plumes  of  cloud  now  slowly  entered  into  the 
lofty  arch  of  dawn  and  melted  from  brown  to  purple- 
black.  The  upper  sky  swam  with  violet;  and  in  a 
moment  each  stray  cloud-feather  was  edged  with  rose, 
and  then  suffused.  It  seemed  that  the  heights  fronted 
East  to  eye  the  interflooding  of  colours,  and  it  was 
imaginable  that  all  turned  to  the  giant  whose  forehead 
first  kindled  to  the  sim  :  a  greeting  of  god  and  king. 

On  the   morning   of   a  farewell  we  fluctuate  sharply 


FAREWELL  TO   AN   OLD   HOME  47 

between  the  very  distant  and  the  close  and  homely: 
and  even  in  memory  the  fluctuation  recurs,  the  grander 
scene  casting  us  back  on  the  modestly  nestling,  and 
that,  when  it  has  refreshed  us,  conjuring  imagination 
to  embrace  the  splendour  and  wonder.  But  the  wrench 
of  an  immediate  division  from  what  we  love  makes  the 
things  within  reach  the  dearest,  we  put  out  our  hands  for 
them,  as  violently-parted  lovers  do,  though  the  soul  in 
days  to  come  would  know  a  craving  and  imagination  flap 
a  leaden  wdng,  if  we  had  not  looked  beyond  them. 

"  Shall  we  go  down  ?  "  said  Carinthia,  for  she  knew 
a  little  cascade  near  the  house,  showering  on  rock  and 
fern,  and  longed  to  have  it  round  her. 

They  descended,  Chillon  saying  that  they  would  soon 
have  the  mists  rising,  and  must  not  delay  to  start  on 
their  journey. 

The  armies  of  the  young  sunrise  in  mountain-lands 
neighbouring  the  plains,  vast  shadows,  were  marching 
over  woods  and  meads,  black  against  the  edge  of 
golden;  and  great  heights  were  cut  with  them,  and 
bounding  waters  took  the  leap  in  a  silvery  radiance 
to  gloom;  the  bright  and  dark-banded  valleys  were  like 
night  and  morning  taking  hands  down  the  sweep  of 
their  rivers.  Immense  was  the  range  of  vision  scud- 
ding the  peaks  and  over  the  illimitable  eastward  plains 
fiat  to  the  very  East  and  sources  of  the   sun. 

Carinthia  said:  "When  I  marry  I  shall  come  here  to 
live  and  die." 


48  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Her  brother  glanced  at  her.  He  was  fond  of  her, 
and  personally  he  liked  her  face;  but  such  a  confident 
anticipation  of  marriage  on  the  part  of  a  portionless 
girl  set  him  thinking  of  the  character  of  her  charms 
and  the  attraction  they  would  present  to  the  world 
of  men.  They  were  expressive  enough;  at  times  he 
had  thought  them  marvellous  in  their  clear  cut  of  the 
animating  mind.  No  one  could  fancy  her  handsome; 
and  just  now  her  hair  was  in  some  disorder,  a  night 
without  sleep  had  an  effect  on  her  complexion. 

"  It's  not  usually  the  wife  who  decides  where  to  live," 
said  he. 

Her  ideas  were  anywhere  but  with  the  dream  of  a 
husband.     "  Could  we  stay  on  another  day  ?  " 

"  My  dear  girl !  Another  night  on  that  crazy  stool ! 
Besides,  Mariandl  is  bound  to  go  to-day  to  her  new 
place,  and  who's  to  cook  for  us  ?  Do  you  propose 
fasting  as  well  as  watching?'' 

"  Could  I  cook  ? "  she  asked  him  humbly. 

"No,  you  couldn't;  not  for  a  starving  regiment! 
Your  accomplishments  are  of  a  different  sort.  No,  it's 
better  to  get  over  the  pain  at  once,  if  we  can't  escape 
it." 

"That  I  think  too,"  said  she,  "and  we  should  have 
to  buy  provisions.  Then,  brother,  instantly  after  break- 
fast. Only,  let  us  walk  it.  I  know  the  whole  way, 
and  it  is  not  more  than  a  two  days'  walk  for  you  and 
me.     Consent.     Driving  would  be  like  going  gladly.     I 


FAREWELL  TO   AN   OLD   HOME  49 

could  never  bear  to  remember  that  I  was  driven  away. 
And  walking  will  save  money;  we  are  not  rich,  you 
tell  me,  brother. '^ 

"  A  few  florins  more  or  less ! "  he  rejoined,  rather 
fro^vning.  "You  have  good  Styrian  boots,  I  see.  But 
I  want  to  be  over  at  the  Baths  there  soon;  not  later 
than  to-morrow." 

"  But,  brother,  if  they  know  we  are  coming  they  will 
wait  for  us.  And  we  can  be  there  to-morrow  night  or 
the  next  morning!'' 

He  considered  it.  He  wanted  exercise  and  loved 
this  mountain-land;  his  inclinations  melted  into  hers, 
though  he  had  reasons  for  hesitating.  "  Well,  we'll 
send  on  my  portmanteau  and  your  boxes  in  the  cart; 
we'll  walk  it.  You're  a  capital  walker,  you're  a  gallant 
comrade ;  I  wouldn't  wish  for  a  better."  He  wondered, 
as  he  spoke,  whether  any  true-hearted  gentleman  be- 
sides himself  would  ever  think  the  same  of  this  lonely 
girl. 

Her  eyes  looked  a  delighted  "  No-really  ? "  for  the 
sweetest  on  earth  to  her  was  to  be  prized  by  her 
brother. 

She  hastened  forward.  "We  will  go  down  and  have 
our  last  meal  at  home,"  she  said  in  the  dialect  of  the 
country.  "  We  have  five  eggs.  No  meat  for  you,  dear, 
but  enough  bread  and  butter,  some  honey  left,  and 
plenty  of  coffee.  I  should  like  to  have  left  old  Mari- 
andl  more,  but  we  are  unable  to  do  very  much  for  poor 


60  THE  AMAZING  JVIARRIAGE 

people  now.  Milk,  I  cannot  say.  She  is  just  the  kind 
soul  to  be  up  and  out  to  fetch  us  milk  for  an  early 
first  breakfast;  but  she  may  have  overslept  herself." 

Chillon  smiled.  "You  were  right,  Janey,  about  not 
going  to  bed  last  night;  we  might  have  missed  the 
morning." 

"I  hate  sleep:  I  hate  anything  that  robs  me  of  my 
will,"  she  replied. 

"You'd  be  glad  of  your  doses  of  sleep  if  you  had 
to  work  and  study." 

"To  fall  down  by  the  wayside  tired  out  —  yes, 
brother,  a  dead  sleep  is  good.  Then  you  are  in  the 
hands  of  God.  Father  used  to  say,  four  hours  for  a 
man,  six  for  a  woman." 

"And  four  and  twenty  for  a  lord,"  added  Chillon. 
"I  remember." 

"A  lord  of  that  Admiralty,"  she  appealed  to  his 
closer  recollection.  "  But  I  mean,  brother,  dreaming  is 
what  I  detest  so." 

"  Don't  be  detesting,  my  dear ;  reserve  your  strength," 
said  he.  "  I  suppose  dreams  are  of  some  use,  now  and 
then." 

"I  shall  never  think  them  useful." 

"  When  we  can't  get  what  we  want,  my  good  Carin." 

"Then  we  should  not  waste  ourselves  in  dreams." 

"They  promise  falsely  sometimes.  That's  no  reason 
why  we  should  reject  the  consolation  when  we  can't 
get  what  we  want,  my  little  sister." 


FAEEWELL  TO  AN   OLD   HOME  51 

"I  would  not  be  denied." 

"There's  the  impossible." 

"Kot  for  you,  brother." 

Perhaps  a  half-minute  after  she  had  spoken,  he 
said,  pursuing  a  dialogue  within  himself  aloud  rather 
than  revealing  a  secret:  "You  don't  know  her  posi- 
tion." 

Carinthia's  heart  stopped  beating.  Who  was  this 
person  suddenly  conjured  up? 

She  fancied  she  might  not  have  heard  correctly ;  she 
feared  to  ask:  and  yet  she  perceived  a  novel  softness 
in  him  that  would  have  answered.  Pain  of  an  unknown 
kind  made  her  love  of  her  brother  conscious  that  if  she 
asked  she  would  suffer  greater  pain. 

The  house  was  in  sight,  a  long  white  building  with 
blinds  down  at  some  of  the  windows,  and  some  wide 
open,  some  showing  unclean  glass :  the  three  aspects 
and  signs  of  a  house's  emptiness  when  they  are  seen 
together. 

Carinthia  remarked  on  their  having  met  nobody.  It 
had  a  serious  meaning  for  them.  Formerly  they  were 
proud  of  outstripping  the  busy  population  of  the  mine, 
coming  do"\\Ti  on  them  with  wild  wavings  and  shouts  at 
sunrise.  They  felt  the  death  again,  a  whole  field  laid 
low  by  one  stroke,  and  wintriness  in  the  season  of  glad 
life.     A  wind  had  blown  and  all  had  vanished. 

The  second  green  of  the  year  shot  lively  sparkles  off 
the  meadows,  from  a  fringe  of  coloured  globelets  to  a 


52  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

warm  silver  lake  of  dews.  The  firwood  was  already 
breathing  rich  and  sweet  in  the  sun.  The  half-moon 
fell  rayless  and  paler  than  the  fan  of  fleeces  pushed  up 
westward,  high  overhead,  themselves  dispersing  on  the 
blue  in  downy  feathers,  like  the  mottled  grey  of  an 
eagle's  breast :  the  smaller  of  them  bluish,  like  traces 
of  the  beaked  wood-pigeon. 

She  looked  above,  then  below  on  the  slim  and  straight- 
grown  flocks  of  naked  purple  crocuses  in  bud  and  blow 
abounding  over  the  meadow  that  rolled  to  the  level  of 
the  house,  and  two  of  these  she  gathered. 


CHAPTER  V 

A   MOUNTAIN   WALK   IX   MIST   AND    SUNSHINE 

Chillon  was  right  in  his  forecast  of  the  mists.  An 
over-moistened  earth  steaming  to  the  sun  obscured  it 
before  the  two  had  finished  breakfast,  which  was  a  finish 
to  everything  eatable  in  the  ravaged  dwelling,  with  the 
exception  of  a  sly  store  for  the  midday  meal,  that  old 
Mariandl  had  stuffed  into  Chillon's  leather  sack  —  the 
fruit  of  secret  begging  on  their  behalf  about  the  neigh- 
bourhood. He  found  the  sack  heavy  and  bulky  as  he 
slung  it  over  his  shoulder;  but  she  bade  him  make 
nothing  of  such  a  trifle  till  he  had  it  inside  him.  "And 
you  that  love  tea  so,  my  pretty  one,  so  that  you  always 


MOUNTAIN  WALK  IN   MIST   AND   SUNSHINE       53 

laughed  and  sang  after  drinking  a  cup  with  your  mother," 
she  said  to  Carinthia,  "  you  will  find  one  pinch  of  it  in 
your  bag  at  the  end  of  the  left-foot  slipper,  to  remember 
your  home  by  when  you  are  out  in  the  Avorld." 

She  crossed  the  strap  of  the  bag  on  her  mistress's 
bosom,  and  was  embraced  by  Carinthia  and  Chillon  in 
turns,  Carinthia  telling  her  to  dry  her  eyes,  for  that  she 
would  certainly  come  back  and  perhaps  occupy  the  house 
one  day  or  other.  The  old  soul  moaned  of  eyes  that 
would  not  be  awake  to  behold  her ;  she  begged  a  visit 
at  her  grave,  though  it  was  to  be  in  a  Catholic  burial- 
place  and  the  priests  had  used  her  dear  master  and 
mistress  ill,  not  allowing  them  to  lie  in  consecrated 
ground;  affection  made  her  a  champion  of  religious 
tolerance  and  a  little  afraid  of  retribution.  Carinthia 
soothed  her,  kissed  her,  gave  the  promise,  and  the  part- 
ing was  over. 

She  and  Chillon  had  on  the  previous  day  accomplished 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  resting-place  of  their  father  and 
mother  among  humble  Protestants,  iron-smelters,  in  a 
valley  out  of  the  way  of  their  present  line  of  march  to 
the  glacier  of  the  great  snow-mountain  marking  the 
junction  of  three  Alpine  provinces  of  Austria.  Josef, 
the  cart-driver  with  the  boxes,  who  was  to  pass  the 
valley,  vowed  of  his  own  accord  to  hang  a  fresh  day's 
wreath  on  the  rails.  He  would  not  hear  of  money  for 
the  purchase,  and  they  humoured  him.  The  family  had 
been  beloved.     There  was  an  offer  of  a  home  for  Carin- 


54  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

thia  in  the  castle  of  Count  Lebern,  a  friend  of  lier 
parents,  much  taken  with  her,  and  she  would  have 
accepted  it  had  not  Chillon  overruled  her  choice,  deter- 
mined that,  as  she  was  English,  she  must  come  to 
England  and  live  under  the  guardianship  of  her  uncle, 
Lord  Levellier,  of  whose  character  he  did  not  speak. 

The  girl's  cheeks  were  drawn  thin  and  her  lips  shut 
as  they  departed;  she  was  tearless.  A  phantom  ring 
of  mist  accompanied  her  from  her  first  footing  outside 
the  house.  She  did  not  look  back.  The  house  came 
swimming  and  plunging  after  her,  like  a  spectral  ship 
on  big  seas,  and  her  father  and  mother  lived  and  died 
in  her  breast;  and  now  they  were  strong,  consulting, 
chatting,  laughing,  caressing ;  now  still  and  white, 
caught  by  a  vapour  that  dived  away  with  them  either 
to  right  or  left,  but  always  with  the  same  suddenness, 
leaving  her  to  question  herself  whether  she  existed,  for 
more  of  life  seemed  to  be  with  their  mystery  than  with 
her  speculations.  The  phantom  ring  of  mist  enclosing 
for  miles  the  invariable  low-sweeping  dark  spruce-fir 
kept  her  thoughts  on  them  as  close  as  the  shroud.  She 
walked  fast,  but  scarcely  felt  that  she  was  moving. 
Near  midday  the  haunted  circle  widened;  rocks  were 
loosely  folded  in  it,  and  heads  of  trees,  whose  round 
intervolving  roots  grasped  the  yellow  roadside  soil ;  the 
mists  shook  like  a  curtain,  and  partly  opened  and 
displayed  a  tapestry-landscape,  roughly  worked,  of 
woollen  crag  and  castle  and   suggested   glen,  threaded 


MOUNTAIN   WALK  IN  MIST   AND   SUNSHINE       55 

waters,  very  prominent  foreground,  Autumn  flowers  on 
banks,  a  predominant  atmospheric  greyness.  The  sun 
threw  a  shaft,  liquid  instead  of  burning,  as  we  see  his 
beams  beneath  a  wave;  and  then  the  mists  narrowed 
again,  boiled  up  the  valleys  and  streams  above  the 
mountain,  curled  and  flew,  and  were  Python  coils  pierced 
by  brighter  arrows  of  the  sun.  A  spot  of  blue  signalled 
his  victory  above. 

To  look  at  it  was  to  fancy  they  had  been  walking 
under  water  and  had  now  risen  to  the  surface.  Carin- 
thia's  mind  stepped  out  of  the  chamber  of  death.  The 
different  air  and  scene  breathed  into  her  a  timid 
warmth  toward  the  future,  and  between  her  naming  of 
the  lesser  mountains  on  their  side  of  the  pass,  she 
asked  questions  relating  to  England,  and  especially  the 
ladies  she  was  to  see  at  the  Baths  beyond  the  glacier- 
pass.  She  had  heard  of  a  party  of  his  friends  awaiting 
him  there,  without  much  encouragement  from  him  to 
ask  particulars  of  them,  and  she  had  hitherto  abstained, 
as  she  was  rather  shy  of  meeting  her  countrywomen. 
The  ladies,  Chillon  said,  were  cousins ;  one  was  a  young 
widow,  the  Countess  of  Fleetwood,  and  the  other  was 
Miss  Fakenham,  a  younger  lady. 

Carinthia  murmured  in  German :  "  Poor  soul ! "  Which 
one  was  she  pitying  ?  The  widow,  she  said,  in  the  tone 
implying,  naturally. 

Her  brother  assured  her  the  widow  was  used  to  it, 
for  this  was  her  second  widowhood. 


56  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"  She  marries  again !  "  exclaimed  the  girl. 

"  You  don't  like  that  idea  ?  "  said  he. 

Carinthia  betrayed  a  delicate  shudder. 

Her  brother  laughed  to  himself  at  her  expressive 
present  tense.  "  And  marries  again ! "  he  said.  "  There 
will  certainly  be  a  third." 

"Husband?  "  said  she,  as  at  the  incredible. 

"Husband,  let's  hope,"  he  answered. 

She  dropped  from  her  contemplation  of  the  lady,  and 
her  look  at  her  brother  signified :  It  will  not  be  you  ! 

Chillon  was  engaged  in  spying  for  a  place  where  he 
could  spread  out  the  contents  of  his  bag.  Sharp  hunger 
beset  them  both  at  the  mention  of  eating.  A  bank  of 
sloping  green  shaded  by  a  chestnut  proposed  the  seat, 
and  here  he  relieved  the  bag  of  a  bottle  of  wine,  slices 
of  meat,  bread,  hard  eggs,  and  lettuce,  a  chipped  cup  to 
fling  away  after  drinking  the  wine,  and  a  supply  of 
small  butter-cakes  known  to  be  favourites  with  Carin- 
thia. She  reversed  the  order  of  the  feast  by  commenc- 
ing upon  one  of  the  cakes,  to  do  honour  to  Mariandl's 
thoughtfulness.  As  at  their  breakfast,  they  shared  the 
last  morsel. 

"  But  we  would  have  made  it  enough  for  our  dear  old 
dog  Pluto  as  well,  if  he  had  lived,"  said  Carinthia,  sigh- 
ing with  her  thankfulness  and  compassionate  regrets,  a 
mixture  often  inspiring  a  tender  babbling  melancholy. 
"Dogs'  eyes  have  such  a  sick  look  of  love.  He  might 
have  lived  longer,  though  he  was  very  old,  only  he  could 


MOUNTAIN  WALK  IN  MIST   AND   SUNSHINE       57 

not  survive  the  loss  of  father.  I  know  the  finding  of 
the  body  broke  his  heart.  He  sprang  forward,  he 
stopped  and  threw  up  his  head.  It  was  human  lan- 
guage to  hear  him,  Chillon.  He  lay  in  the  yard,  trying 
to  lift  his  eyes  when  I  came  to  him,  they  were  so  hea^y ; 
and  he  had  not  strength  to  move  his  poor  old  tail  more 
than  once.  He  died  with  his  head  on  my  lap.  He 
seemed  to  beg  me,  and  I  took  him,  and  he  breathed 
twice,  and  that  was  his  end.  Pluto  !  old  dog !  Well,  for 
you  or  for  me,  brother,  we  could  not  have  a  better  wish. 
As  for  me^  death !  .  .  .  When  we  know  we  are  to  die  ! 
Only  let  my  darling  live  !  that  is  my  prayer,  and  that 
we  two  may  not  be  separated  till  I  am  taken  to  their 
grave.  Father  bought  ground  for  four  —  his  wife  and 
himself  and  his  two  children.  It  does  not  oblige  us  to 
be  buried  there,  but  could  we  have  any  other  desire  ?  " 

She  stretched  her  hand  to  her  brother.  He  kissed  it 
spiritedly. 

^"'Look  ahead,  my  dear  girl.  Help  me  to  finish  this 
wine.  There's  nothing  like  good  hard  walking  to  give 
common  wine  of  the  country  a  flavour  —  and  out  of 
broken  crockery." 

"I  think  it  so  good,"  Carinthia  replied,  after  drink- 
ing from  the  cup.  '^  In  England  they  do  not  grow  wine. 
Are  the  people  there  kind  ? " 

"They're  civilized  people,  of  course." 

"Kind — warm  to  you,  Chillon?" 

"Some  of  them,  when  you  know  them.     'Warm,'   is 


58  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

hardly  the  word.  Winter's  warm  on  skates.  You 
must  do  a  great  deal  for  yourself.  They  don't  boil 
over.     By  the  way,  don't  expect  much  of  your  uncle." 

"  Will  he  not  loA^e  me  ?  " 

"He  gives  you  a  lodging  in  his  house,  and  food  — 
enough,  we'll  hope.  You  won't  see  company  or  much  of 
him.'' 

"I  cannot  exist  without  being  loved.  I  do  not  care 
for  company.     He  must  love  me  a  little." 

"  He  is  one  of  the  warm-hearted  race  —  he's  mother's 
brother  ;  but  where  his  heart  is,  I've  not  discovered. 
Bear  with  him  just  for  the  present,  my  dear,  till  I 
am  able  to  support  you." 

"  I  will,"  she  said. 

The  dreary  vision  of  a  home  with  an  unloving  uncle 
was  not  brightened  by  the  alternative  of  her  brother's 
having  to  support  her.  She  spoke  of  money.  "Have 
we  none,  Cliillon  ?  " 

"  We  have  no  debts,"  he  answered.  "  We  have  a  claim 
on  the  Government  here  for  indemnification  for  property 
taken  to  build  a  fortress  upon  one  of  the  passes  into 
Italy.  Father  bought  the  land,  thinking  there  would  be 
a  yield  of  ore  thereabout;  and  they  have  seized  it, 
rightly  enough,  but  they  dispute  our  claim  for  the  val- 
uation we  put  on  it.  A  small  sum  they  would  consent 
to  pay.  It  would  be  a  very  small  sum,  and  I'm  my 
father's  son,  I  will  have  justice." 

"  Yes  !  "  Carinthia  joined  with  him  to  show  the  same 
stout  nature. 


MOUNTAIN   WALK   IN  MIST   AND   SUNSHINE       59 

"We  have  nothing  else  except  a  bit  to  toss  up  for 
hick.'^ 

"  And  how  can  I  help  being  a  burden  on  my  brother  ?  " 
she  inquired,  in  distress. 

"Marry,  and  be  a  blessing  to  a  husband,"  he  said 
lightly. 

They  performed  a  sacrifice  of  the  empty  bottle  and 
cracked  cup  on  the  site  of  their  meal,  as  if  it  had  been  a 
ceremony  demanded  from  travellers,  and  leaving  them  in 
fragments,  proceeded  on  their  journey  refreshed. 

Walking  was  now  high  enjoyment,  notwithstanding  the 
force  of  the  sun,  for  they  were  a  hardy  couple,  requiring 
no  more  than  sufficient  nourishment  to  combat  the  ele- 
ments with  an  exulting  blood.  Besides  they  loved 
mountain  air  and  scenery,  and  each  step  to  the  ridge  of 
the  pass  they  climbed  was  an  advance  in  splendour. 
Peaks  of  ashen  hue  and  pale  dry  red  and  pale  sulphur 
pushed  up,  straight,  forked,  twisted,  naked,  striking  their 
minds  with  an  indeterminate  ghostliness  of  Indian,  so 
strange  they  were  in  shape  and  colouring.  These  sharp 
points  were  the  first  to  greet  them  between  the  blue  and 
green.  A  depression  of  the  pass  to  the  left  gave  sight 
of  the  points  of  black  fir  forest  below,  round  the  girths 
of  the  barren  shafts.  Mountain  blocks  appeared  pushing 
up  in  front,  and  a  mountain  wall  and  woods  on  it,  and 
mountains  in  the  distance,  and  cliffs  riven  with  falls  of 
water  that  were  silver  skeins,  down  lower  to  meadows, 
villages  and  spires,  and  lower  finally  to  the  whole  valley 


60  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

of  the  foaming  river,  field  and  river  seeming  in  imagina- 
tion rolled  out  from  the  hand  of  the  heading  mountain. 

"  But  see  this  in  winter,  as  I  did  with  father,  Chillon ! " 
said  Carinthia. 

She  said  it  upon  love's  instinct  to  halo  the  scene  with 
something  beyond  present  vision,  and  to  sanctify  it  for 
her  brother,  so  that  this  walk  of  theirs  together  should 
never  be  forgotten. 

A  smooth  fold  of  cloud,  moveless  along  one  of  the 
upper  pastures,  and  still  dense  enough  to  be  luminous  in 
sunlight,  was  the  last  of  the  mist. 

They  watched  it  lying  in  the  form  of  a  fish,  leviathan 
diminished,  as  they  descended  their  path;  and  the  head 
was  lost,  the  tail  spread  peacockwise,  and  evaporated 
slowly  in  that  likeness ;  and  soft  to  a  breath  of  air  as 
gossamer  down,  the  body  became  a  ball,  a  cock,  a  little 
lizard,  nothingness. 

The  bluest  bright  day  of  the  year  was  shining.  Chil- 
lon led  the  descent.  With  his  trim  and  handsome  figure 
before  her,  Carinthia  remembered  the  current  saying, 
that  he  should  have  been  the  girl  and  she  the  boy.  That 
was  because  he  resembled  their  mother  in  face.  But  the 
build  of  his  limbs  and  shoulders  was  not  feminine.  To 
her  admiring  eyes,  he  had  a  look  superior  to  simple 
strength  and  grace ;  the  look  of  a  great  sky-bird  about 
to  mount,  a  fountain-like  energy  of  stature,  delightful  to 
her  contemplation.  And  he  had  the  mouth  women  put 
faith  in  for  decision  and  fixedness.     She  did,  most  fully ; 


MOUNTAIN   WALK  IN  MIST   AND   SUNSHINE       61 

and  reflecting  how  entirely  she  did  so,  the  thought  as- 
sailed her :  some  one  must  be  loving  him ! 

She  allowed  it  to  surprise  her,  not  choosing  to  revert 
to  an  uneasy  sensation  of  the  morning. 

That  some  one,  her  process  of  reasoning  informed  her, 
was  necessarily  an  English  young  lady.  She  reserved 
her  questions  till  they  should  cease  this  hopping  and 
heeling  down  the  zigzag  of  the  slippery  path-track. 
When  children  they  had  been  collectors  of  beetles  and 
butterflies,  and  the  flying  by  of  a  ^royal-mantle,'  the 
purple  butterfly  grandly  fringed,  could  still  remind  Ca- 
rinthia  of  the  event  it  was  of  old  to  spy  and  chase  one. 
Chillon  himself  was  not  above  the  sentiment  of  their  very 
early  days ;  he  stopped  to  ask  if  she  had  seen  that  lus- 
trous blue-wing,  a  rarer  species,  prized  by  youngsters, 
shoot  through  the  chestnut  trees :  and  they  both  paused 
for  a  moment,  gazing  into  the  fairyland  of  infancy,  she 
seeing  with  her  brother's  eyes,  this  prince  of  the  realm 
having  escaped  her.  He  owned  he  might  have  been  mis- 
taken, as  the  brilliant  fellow  flew  swift  and  high  between 
leaves,  like  an  ordinary  fritillary.  Not  the  less  did  they 
get  their  glimpse  of  the  wonders  in  the  sunny  eternity  of 
a  child's  afternoon. 

"  An  Auerhahn,  Chillon ! "  she  said,  picturing  the 
maturer  day  when  she  had  scaled  perilous  heights 
with  him  at  night  to  stalk  the  blackcock  in  the  prime 
of  the  morning.  She  wished  they  could  have  had 
another    such    adventure   to   stamp    the    old   home   on 


62  THE  AMAZING  MAKRIAGE 

liis  heart  freshly,  to  the  exclusion  of  beautiful  Eng- 
lish  faces. 

On  the  level  of  the  valley,  where  they  met  the  torrent- 
river,  walking  side  by  side  with  him,  she  ventured  an 
inquiry :  "  English  girls  are  fair  girls,  are  they  not  ? '' 

"There  are  some  dark  also,"  he  replied. 

"But  the  best-looking  are  fair?" 

"Perhaps  they  are,  with  us." 

"Mother  was  fair." 

"She  was." 

"I  have  only  seen  a  few  of  them,  once  at  Vienna, 
and  at  Venice,  and  those  Baths  we  are  going  to ;  and  at 
Meran  I  think." 

"  You  considered  them  charming  ?  " 

"Not  all." 

It  was  touching  that  she  should  be  such  a  stranger  to 
her  countrywomen!  He  drew  a  portrait-case  from  his 
breast-pocket,  pressing  the  spring,  and  handed  it  to  her, 
saying:  "There  is  one."  He  spoke  indifferently,  but 
as  soon  as  she  had  seen  the  face  inside  it,  Avith  a  look  at 
him  and  a  deep  breath,  she  understood  that  he  was  an 
altered  brother,  and  that  they  were  three  instead  of  two. 

She  handed  it  back  to  him,  saying  hushedly  and  only : 
"Yes." 

He  did  not  ask  an  opinion  upon  the  beauty  she  had 
seen.  His  pace  increased,  and  she  hastened  her  steps 
beside  him.  She  had  not  much  to  learn  when  some 
minutes  later  she  said :  "  Shall  I  see  her,  Chillon  ?  " 


MOUNTAIN   WALK   IN   MIST   AND   SUNSHINE       63 

"  She  is  one  of  the  ladies  we  are  to  meet." 

"  What  a  pity  ! "  Carinthia  stepped  faster,  enlightened 
as  to  his  wish  to  get  to  the  Baths  without  delay ;  and  her 
heart  softened  in  reflecting  how  readily  he  had  yielded 
to  her  silly  preference  for  going  on  foot. 

Her  cry  of  regret  was  equivocal;  it  produced  no 
irapression  on  him.  They  reached  a  village  where  her 
leader  deemed  it  advisable  to  drive  for  the  remainder 
of  the  distance  up  the  valley  to  the  barrier  snow- 
mountain.  She  assented  instantly;  she  had  no  longer 
any  active  wishes  of  her  own,  save  to  make  amends  to 
her  brother,  who  was  and  would  ever  be  her  brother: 
she  could  not  be  robbed  of  their  relationship. 

Something  undefined  in  her  feeling  of  possession 
she  had  been  robbed  of,  she  knew  it  by  her  spiritless- 
ness ;  and  she  would  fain  have  attributed  it  to  the  idle 
motion  of  the  car,  now  and  then  stupidly  jolting  her  on, 
after  the  valiant  exercise  of  her  limbs.  They  were  in 
a  land  of  waterfalls  and  busy  mills,  a  narrowing  vale 
where  the  runs  of  grass  grew  short  and  wild,  and  the 
glacier-river  roared  for  the  leap,  more  foam  than  water, 
and  the  savagery,  naturally  exciting  to  her,  breathed  of 
its  lair  among  the  rocks  and  ice-fields. 

Her  brother  said :  "  There  he  is."  She  saw  the  white- 
crowned  king  of  the  region,  of  whose  near  presence  to 
her  old  home  she  had  been  accustomed  to  think  proudly, 
and  she  looked  at  him  without  springing  to  him,  and 
continued  imaging  her  English  home   and  her  loveless 


64  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

uncle,  merely  admiring  the  scene,  as  if  the  fire  of  her 
soul  had  been  extinguished.  — "  Marry,  and  be  a  bless- 
ing to  a  husband."  Chillon's  words  whispered  of  the 
means  of  escape  from  the  den  of  her  uncle. 

But  who  would  marry  me!  she  thought.  An  unre- 
proved  sensation  of  melting  pervaded  her;  she  knew 
her  capacity  for  gratitude,  and  conjuring  it  up  in  her 
heart,  there  came  with  it  the  noble  knightly  gentleman 
who  would  really  stoop  to  take  a  plain  girl  by  the  hand, 
release  her,  and  say :  "  Be  mine ! "  His  vizor  was  down, 
of  course.  She  had  no  power  of  imagining  the  linea- 
ments of  that  prodigy.  Or  was  he  a  dream  ?  He  came 
and  went.  Her  mother,  not  unkindly,  sadly,  had 
counted  her  poor  girl's  chances  of  winning  attention 
and  a  husband.  Her  father  had  doted  on  her  face; 
but,  as  she  argued,  her  father  had  been  attracted  by 
her  mother,  a  beautiful  woman,  and  this  was  a  circum- 
stance that  reflected  the  greater  hopelessness  on  her 
prospects.  She  bore  a  likeness  to  her  father,  little  to 
her  mother,  though  he  fancied  the  reverse  and  gave 
her  the  mother's  lips  and  hair.  Thinking  of  herself, 
however,  was  destructive  to  the  form  of  her  mirror 
of  knightliness :  he  wavered,  he  fled  for  good,  as  the 
rosy  vapour  born  of  our  sensibility  must  do  when  we 
relapse  to  coldness,  and  the  more  completely  when 
we  try  to  command  it.  No,  she  thought,  a  plain  girl 
should  think  of  work,  to  earn  her  independence. 

"Women  are  not  permitted  to  follow  armies,  Chil- 
lon?"  she  said. 


MOUNTAIN   WALK  IN  MIST  AND   SUNSHINE       65 

He  laughed  out.     "  What's  in  your  head  ?  " 

The  laugh  abashed  her;  she  murmured  of  women 
being  good  nurses  for  wounded  soldiers,  if  they  were 
good  walkers  to  march  with  the  army;  and,  as  evi- 
dently it  sounded  witless  to  him,  she  added,  to  seem 
reasonable :  "  You  have  not  told  me  the  Christian  names 
of  those  ladies." 

He  made  queer  eyes  over  the  puzzle  to  connect  the  fore- 
going and  the  succeeding  in  her  remarks,  but  answered 
straightforw^ardly :    "  Livia  is  one,  and  Henrietta." 

Her  ear  seized  on  the  stress  of  his  voice.  "Henri- 
etta ! "  She  chose  that  name  for  the  name  of  the 
person  disturbing  her;  it  fused  best,  she  thought,  w^ith 
the  new  element  she  had  been  compelled  to  take  into 
her  system,  to  absorb  it  if  she  could. 

"You're  not  scheming  to  have  them  serve  as  army 
hospital  nurses,  my  dear?" 

"  No,  Chillon." 

"You  can't  explain  it,  I  suppose." 

"A  sister  could  go  too,  when  you  go  to  war,  Chillon." 

A  sister  could  go,  if  it  were  permitted  by  the  au- 
thorities, and  be  near  her  brother  to  nurse  him  in  case 
of  wounds;  others  would  be  unable  to  claim  the  privi- 
lege. That  was  her  meaning,  involved  with  the  hazy 
project  of  earning  an  independence;  but  she  could  not 
explain  it,  and  Chillon  set  her  down  for  one  of  the 
inexplicable  sex,  which  the  simple  adventurous  girl  had 
not  previously  seemed  to  be. 


66  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

She  was  inwardly  warned  of  having  talked  foolishly, 
and  she  held  her  tongue.  Her  humble  and  modest 
jealousy,  scarce  deserving  the  title,  passed  with  a  sigh 
or  two.     It  was  her  first  taste  of  life  in  the  world. 

A  fit  of  heavy-mindedness  ensued,  that  heightened 
the  contrast  her  recent  mood  had  bequeathed,  between 
herself,  ignorant  as  she  was,  and  those  ladies.  Their 
names,  Livia  and  Henrietta,  soared  above  her  and  sang 
the  music  of  the  splendid  spheres.  Henrietta  was 
closer  to  earth,  for  her  features  had  been  revealed; 
she  was  therefore  the  dearer,  and  the  richer  for  him 
who  loved  her,  being  one  of  us,  though  an  over-earthly 
one;  and  Carinthia  gave  her  to  Chillon,  reserving  for 
herself  a  handmaiden's  place  within  the  circle  of  their 
happiness. 

This  done,  she  sat  straight  in  the  car.  It  was  toil- 
ing up  the  steep  ascent  of  a  glen  to  the  mountain  vil- 
lage, the  last  of  her  native  province.  Her  proposal 
to  walk  was  accepted,  and  the  speeding  of  her  blood, 
now  that  she  had  mastered  the  new  element  in  it,  soon 
restored  her  to  her  sisterly  affi.nity  with  natural  glo- 
ries. The  sunset  was  on  yonder  side  of  the  snows. 
Here  there  was  a  feast  of  variously-tinted  sunset  shad- 
ows on  snow,  meadows,  rock,  river,  serrated  cliff.  The 
peaked  cap  of  the  rushing  rock-dotted  sweeps  of  up- 
ward snow  caught  a  scarlet  illumination :  one  flank  of 
the  white  in  heaven  was  violetted  wonderfully. 

At   nightfall,   under   a   clear    black    sky,   alive   Avith 


MOUNTAIN  WALK   IN   MIST  AND   SUNSHINE       67 

wakeful  fires  round  liead  and  breast  of  tlie  great  Alp, 
Chillon  and  Carinthia  strolled  out  of  the  village,  and 
he  told  her  some  of  his  hopes.  They  referred  to  in- 
ventions of  destructive  weapons,  which  were  primarily 
to  place  his  country  out  of  all  danger  from  a  world 
in  arms ;  and  also,  it  might  be  mentioned,  to  bring 
him  fortune.  "  For  I  must  have  money ! "  he  said, 
sighing  it  out  like  a  deliberate  oath.  He  and  his 
uncle  were  associated  in  the  inventions.  They  had  an 
improved  rocket  that  would  force  military  chiefs  to 
change  their  tactics:  they  had  a  new  powder,  a  rifle, 
a  model  musket  —  the  latter  based  on  his  own  plans; 
and  a  scheme  for  fortress  artillery  likely  to  turn  the 
preponderance  in  favour  of  the  defensive  once  again. 
"And  that  will  be  really  doing  good,"  said  Chillon, 
"  for  where  it's  with  the  offensive,  there's  everlast- 
ing bullying  and  plundering." 

Carinthia  warmly  agreed  with  him,  but  begged  him 
be  sure  his  uncle  divided  the  profits  equally.  She 
discerned  what  his  need  of  money  signified. 

Tenderness  urged  her  to  say :   "  Henrietta  !  Chillon." 

"  Well  ? "  he  answered  quickly. 

"AYill  she  wait?" 

"Can  she,  you  should  ask." 

"  Is  she  brave  ?  " 

"  Who  can  tell,  till  she  has  been  tried  ?  " 

"  Is  she  quite  free  ?  " 

"She  has  not  yet  been  captured." 


68  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"Brother,  is  there  no  one  else?  .  .  ." 

"There's  a  nobleman  anxious  to  bestow  his  titles 
on  her." 

"He  is  rich?" 

"The  first  or  second  wealthiest  in  Great  Britain, 
they  say." 

"  Is  he  young  ?  " 

"About  the  same  age  as  mine." 

"  Is  he  a  handsome  young  man  ?  " 

"Handsomer  than  your  brother,  my  girl." 

"No,  no,  no ! "  said  she.  "  And  what  if  he  is, 
and  your  Henrietta  does  not  choose  him  ?  I^ow  let 
me  think  what  I  long  to  think.  I  have  her  close  to 
me." 

She  rocked  a  roseate  image  on  her  heart  and  went 
to  bed  with  it  by  starlight. 

By  starlight  they  sprang  to  their  feet  and  departed 
the  next  morning,  in  the  steps  of  a  guide  carrying, 
Chillon  said,  "a  better  lantern  than  we  left  behind 
us  at  the  smithy." 

"  Father ! "  exclaimed  Carinthia  on  her  swift  in- 
ward breath,  for  this  one  of  the  names  he  had  used 
to  give  to  her  old  home  revived  him  to  her  thoughts 
and  senses  fervently. 


THE  NATURAL   PHILOSOPHER  69 

CHAPTEK  YI 

THE   NATURAL    PHILOSOPHER 

Three  parts  down  a  swift  decline  of  shattered  slate, 
where  travelling  stones  loosened  from  rows  of  scree 
hurl  away  at  a  bound  after  one  roll  over,  there  sat  a 
youth  dusty  and  torn,  nursing  a  bruised  leg,  not  in 
the  easiest  of  postures,  on  a  sharp  tooth  of  rock,  that 
might  at  any  moment  have  broken  from  the  slanting 
slab  at  the  end  of  which  it  formed  a  stump,  and 
added  him  a  second  time  to  the  general  crumble  of 
the  mountain.  He  had  done  a  portion  of  the  descent 
in  excellent  imitation  of  the  detached  fragments,  and 
had  parted  company  with  his  alpenstock  and  plaid; 
preserving  his  hat  and  his  knapsack,  or  at  least  the 
contents.  He  was  alone,  disabled,  and  cheerful;  in 
doubt  of  the  arrival  of  succour  before  he  could  trust 
his  left  leg  to  do  him  further  service  unaided;  but  it 
was  morning  still,  the  sim  was  hot,  the  air  was  cool ; 
just  the  tempering  opposition  to  render  existence  pleas- 
ant as  a  piece  of  vegetation,  especially  when  there 
has  been  a  question  of  your  ceasing  to  exist;  and 
the  view  was  of  a  sustaining  sublimity  of  desolate- 
ness :  crag  and  snow  overhead ;  a  gloomy  vale  below : 
no  life  either  of  bird  or  herd;  a  voiceless  region 
where   there   had   once   been   roars   at   the   bowling   of 


70  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

a  liill  from  a  mountain  to  tlie  deep,  and  tlie  third 
flank  of  the  mountain  spoke  of  it  in  the  silence. 

He  woukl  have  enjoyed  the  scene  unremittingly,  like 
the  philosopher  he  pretended  to  be,  in  a  disdain  of  civi- 
lization and  the  ambitions  of  men,  had  not  a  contest  with 
earth  been  forced  on  him  from  time  to  time  to  keep  the 
heel  of  his  right  foot,  dug  in  shallow  shale,  fixed  and 
supporting.  As  long  as  it  held  he  was  happy  and 
maintained  the  attitude  of  a  guitar-player,  thrumming 
the  calf  of  the  useless  leg  to  accompany  tuneful  thoughts, 
but  the  inevitable  lapse  and  slide  of  the  foot  recurred, 
and  the  philosopher  was  exhibited  as  an  infant  learning 
to  crawl.  The  seat,  moreover,  not  having  been  fashioned 
for  him  or  for  any  soft  purpose,  resisted  his  pressure 
and  became  a  thing  of  violence,  that  required  to  be 
humiliatingiy  coaxed.  His  last  resource  to  propitiate 
it  was  counselled  by  nature  turned  mathematician: 
tenacious  extension  solved  the  problem;  he  lay  back  at 
his  length,  and  with  his  hat  over  his  eyes  consented  to 
see  nothing  for  the  sake  of  comfort.  Thus  he  was 
perfectly  rational,  though  when  others  beheld  him  he 
appeared  the  insanest  of  mortals. 

A  girl's  voice  gave  out  the  mountain  carol  ringingly 
above.  His  heart  and  all  his  fancies  were  in  motion  at 
the  sound.  He  leaned  on  an  elbow  to  listen;  the  slide 
threatened  him,  and  he  resumed  his  full  stretch,  deter- 
mined to  take  her  for  a  dream.  He  was  of  the  class  of 
youths  who,  in   apprehension   that   their   bright   season 


THE   NATURAL   PHILOSOPHER  71 

may  not  be  permanent,  choose  to  fortify  it  by  a  syste- 
matic contempt  of  material  realities  unless  they  come 
in  the  fairest  of  shapes,  and  as  he  was  quite  sincere  in 
this  feeling  and  election  of  the  right  way  to  live,  dis- 
appointment and  sullenness  overcame  him  on  hearing 
men's  shouts  and  steps;  despite  his  helpless  condition 
he  refused  to  stir,  for  they  had  jarred  on  his  dream. 
Perhaps  his  temper,  unknown  to  himself,  had  been  a 
little  injured  by  his  mishap,  and  he  would  not  have 
been  sorry  to  charge  them  with  want  of  common 
humanity  in  passing  him ;  or  he  did  not  think  his 
plight  so  bad,  else  he  would  have  bawled  after  them 
had  they  gone  by :  for  the  youths  of  his  description  are 
fools  only  upon  system,  however  earnestly  they  indulge 
the  present  self-punishing  sentiment.  The  party  did 
not  pass ;  they  stopped  short,  they  consulted,  and  a 
feminine  tongue  more  urgent  than  the  others,  and 
very  musical,  sweet  to  hear  anywhere,  put  him  in 
tune.  She  said  '^  Brother  !  brother  !  "  in  German.  Our 
philosopher  flung  off  his  hat. 

"  You  see ! "  said  the  lady's  brother. 

"Ask  him,  Anton,"  she  said  to  their  guide. 

"  And  quick  !  "  her  brother  added. 

The  guide  scrambled  along  to  him,  and  at  a  closer 
glance  shouted :  "  The  Englishman  ! "  wheeling  his  finger 
to  indicate  what  had  happened  to  the  Tomnoddy  islander. 

His  master  called  to  know  if  there  were  broken 
bones,  as  if  he  could  stop  for  nothing  else. 


72  THE   AMAZING  INIAKRIAGE 

The  cripple  was  raised.  The  gentleman  and  lady 
made  their  way  to  him,  and  he  tried  his  hardest  to  keep 
from  tottering  on  the  slope  in  her  presence.  No  injury 
had  been  done  to  the  leg ;  there  was  only  a  stiffness, 
and  an  idiotic  doubling  of  the  knee,  as  though  at  each 
step  his  leg  pronounced  a  dogged  negative  to  the  act 
of  walking.  He  said  something  equivalent  to  "  this 
donkey  leg,"  to  divert  her  charitable  eyes  from  a  coun- 
tenance dancing  with  ugly  twitches.  She  was  the 
Samaritan.  A  sufferer  discerns  his  friend,  though  it 
be  not  the  one  who  physically  assists  him:  he  is 
inclined  by  nature  to  put  material  aid  at  a  lower 
mark  than  gentleness,  and  her  brief  words  of  encourage- 
ment, the  tone  of  their  delivery  yet  more,  were  medical 
to  his  blood,  better  help  than  her  brother's  iron  arm, 
he  really  believed.  Her  brother  and  the  guide  held  him 
on  each  side,  and  she  led  to  pick  out  the  safer  footing 
for  him ;  she  looked  round  and  pointed  to  some  pro- 
jection that  would  form  a  step;  she  drew  attention 
to  views  here  and  there,  to  win  excuses  for  his  resting ; 
she  did  not  omit  to  soften  her  brother's  visible  im- 
patience as  well,  and  this  was  the  art  which  affected 
her  keenly  sensible  debtor  most. 

"I  suppose  I  ought  to  have  taken  a  guide,"  he  said. 

"There's  not  a  doubt  of  that,"  said  Chillon  Kirby. 

Carinthia  halted,  leaning  on  her  staff:  "But  I  had 
the  same  wish.  They  told  us  at  the  inn  of  an  English- 
man who  left  last  night  to  sleep  on  the  mountain,  and 


THE   NATURAL   PHILOSOPHER  73 

would  go  alone;  and  did  I  not  say,  brother,  that  must 
be  true  love  of  the  mountains  ? " 

"These  freaks  get  us  a  bad  name  on  the  Continent," 
her  brother  replied.  He  had  no  sympathy  with  non- 
sense, and  naturally  not  Avith  a  youth  who  smelt  of 
being  a  dreamy  romancer  and  had  caused  the  name 
of  Englishman  to  be  shouted  in  his  ear  in  derision. 
And  the  fellow  might  delay  his  arrival  at  the  Baths 
and  sight  of  the  lady  of  his  love  for  hours ! 

They  managed  to  get  him  hobbling  and  slipping  to 
the  first  green  tufts  of  the  base,  where  long  black 
tongues  of  slate-rubble  pouring  into  the  grass  like 
shore-waves  that  have  spent  their  burden  seem  about 
to  draw  back  to  bring  the  mountain  down.  Thence 
to  the  level  pasture  was  but  a  few  skips  performed 
sliding. 

"Well,  now,"  said  Chillon,  "you  can  stand?" 

"Pretty  well,  I  think."  He  tried  his  foot  on  the 
ground,  and  then  stretched  his  length,  saying  that  it 
only  wanted  rest.  Anton  pressed  a  hand  at  his  ankle 
and  made  him  wince,  but  the  bones  were  sound,  leg 
and  hip  not  worse  than  badly  bruised.  He  was  advised 
by  Anton  to  plant  his  foot  in  the  first  running  water 
he  came  to,  and  he  was  considerate  enough  to  say  to 
Chillon :  — 

"Now  you  can  leave  me,  and  let  me  thank  you. 
Half  an  hour  will  set  me  right.  My  name  is  Wood- 
seer,  if  ever  we  meet  again." 


74  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Chillon  nodded  a  hurried  good-bye,  without  a  thought 
of  giving  his  name  in  return.  But  Carinthia  had  thrown 
herself  on  the  grass.  Her  brother  asked  her  in  dismay 
if  she  was  tired.  She  murmured  to  him:  "I  should 
like  to  hear  more  English." 

"My  dear  girl,  you'll  have  enough  of  it  in  two  or 
three  weeks." 

"  Should  we  leave  a  good  deal  half  done,  Chillon  ?  " 

"He  shall  have  our  guide." 

"He  may  not  be  rich." 

"I'll  pay  Anton  to  stick  to  him." 

"Brother,  he  has  an  objection  to  guides." 

Chillon  cast  hungry  eyes  on  his  watch :  "  Five  min- 
utes, then."  He  addressed  Mr.  AVoodseer,  who  was  re- 
posing, indifferent  to  time,  hard  by:  "Your  objection 
to  guides  might  have  taught  you  a  sharp  lesson.  It's 
like  declining  to  have  a  master  in  studying  a  science 
—  trusting  to  instinct  for  your  knowledge  of  a  bargain. 
One  might  as  well  refuse  an  oar  to  row  in  a  boat." 

"  I'd  rather  risk  it,"  the  young  man  replied.  "  These 
guides  kick  the  soul  out  of  scenery.  I  came  for  that 
and  not  for  them." 

"You  might  easily  have  been  a  disagreeable  part  of 
the  scene." 

"Why  not  here  as  well  as  elsewhere?" 

"  You  don't  care  for  your  life  ?  " 

"  I  try  not  to  care  for  it  a  fraction  more  than  Destiny 
does." 


THE   NATURAL  PHILOSOPHER  75 

"Fatalism.     I  suppose  you  care  for  something?" 

"  Besides  I've  a  slack  purse,  and  slum  guides  and  inns 
when  I  can.  I  care  for  open  air,  colour,  flowers,  weeds, 
birds,  insects,  moimtains.  There's  a  world  behind  the 
mask.  I  call  this  life  ;  and  the  town's  a  boiling  pot,  in- 
tolerably stuffy.  ]My  one  ambition  is  to  be  out  of  it.  I 
thank  Heaven  I  have  not  another  on  earth.  Yes,  I  care 
for  my  note-book,  because  it's  of  no  use  to  a  human 
being  except  me.  I  slept  beside  a  spring  last  night,  and 
I  never  shall  like  a  bedroom  so  well.  I  think  I  have 
discovered  the  great  secret :  I  may  be  wrong,  of  course." 
And  if  so,  he  had  his  philosophy,  the  admission  was 
meant  to  say. 

Carinthia  expected  the  revelation  of  a  notable  secret, 
but  none  came ;  or  if  it  did  it  eluded  her  grasp :  —  he 
was  praising  contemplation,  he  was  praising  tobacco. 
He  talked  of  the  charm  of  poverty  upon  a  settled  income 
of  a  very  small  sum  of  money,  the  fruit  of  a  compact  he 
would  execute  with  the  town  to  agree  to  his  perpetual 
exclusion  from  it,  and  to  retain  his  identity,  and  not  be 
the  composite  which  every  to^vnsman  was.  He  talked 
of  Buddha.  He  said :  '^  Here  the  brook's  the  brook,  the 
mountain's  the  mountain :  they  are  as  they  always 
were." 

"  You'd  have  men  be  the  same,"  Chillon  remarked,  as 
to  a  nursling  prattler,  and  he  rejoined:  "They've  lost 
more  than  they've  gained ;  though,"  he  admitted,  "  there 
has  been  some  gain,  in  a  certain  way." 


76  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Fortunately  for  tliem,  young  men  have  not  the  habit 
of  reflecting  upon  the  indigestion  of  ideas  they  receive 
from  members  of  their  community,  sometimes  upon  ex- 
change. They  compare  a  view  of  life  with  their  own 
view,  to  condemn  it  summarily ;  and  he  was  a  curious 
object  to  Chill  on  as  the  perfect  opposite  of  himself. 

"  I  would  advise  you/'  Chillon  said,  "  to  get  a  pair  of 
Styrian  boots,  if  you  intend  to  stay  in  the  Alps.  Those 
boots  of  yours  are  London  make." 

"  They're  my  father's  make,"  said  Mr.  Woodseer. 

Chillon  drew  out  his  watch.  "  Come,  Carinthia,  we 
must  be  off."  He  proposed  his  guide,  and,  as  Anton 
Avas  rejected,  he  pointed  the  route  over  the  head  of 
the  village,  stated  the  distance  to  an  inn  that  way, 
saluted  and  strode. 

Mr.  Woodseer,  partly  rising,  presumed,  in  raising  his 
hat  and  thanking  Carinthia,  to  touch  her  fingers.  She 
smiled  on  him,  frankly  extending  her  open  hand,  and 
pointing  the  route  again,  counselling  him  to  rest  at  the 
inn,  even  saying :  "  You  have  not  yet  your  strength  to 
come  on  with  us  ?  " 

He  thought  he  would  stay  some  time  longer :  he  had  a 
disposition  to  smoke. 

She  tripped  away  to  her  brother  and  was  watched 
through  the  whiffs  of  a  pipe  far  up  the  valley,  guiltless 
of  any  consciousness  of  producing  an  impression.  But 
her  mind  was  with  the  stranger  sufficiently  to  cause  her 
to  say  to  Chillon,  at  the  close  of  a  dispute  between  him 


THE  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHER  77 

and  Anton  on  the  interesting  subject  of  the  growth  of 
the  horns  of  chamois:  "Have  we  been  quite  kind  to 
that  gentleman?'' 

Chillon  looked  over  his  shoulder.  -^  He's  there  still ; 
he's  fond  of  solitude.  And,  CariUj  my  dear,  don't  give 
your  hand  when  you  are  meeting  or  parting  with  people : 
it's  not  done." 

His  uninstructed  sister  said:  "Did  you  not  like 
him?" 

She  was  answered  with  an  "  Oh,"  the  tone  of  which 
balanced  lightly  on  the  neutral  line.  "Some  of  the 
ideas  he  has  are  Lord  Fleetwood's,  I  hear,  and  one  can 
understand  them  in  a  man  of  enormous  wealth,  who 
doesn't  know  what  to  do  with  himself  and  is  dead-sick  of 
flattery ;  though  it  seems  odd  for  an  English  nobleman 
to  be  raving  about  Nature.  Perhaps  it's  because  none 
else  of  them  does." 

"  Lord  Fleetwood  loves  our  mountains,  Chillon  ?  " 

"  But  a  fellow  who  probably  has  to  make  his  way  in 
the  world  !  —  and  he  despises  ambition !  "  ...  Chillon 
dropped  him.  He  was  antipathetic  to  eccentrics,  and 
his  soldierly  and  social  training  opposed  the  profession 
of  heterodox  ideas :  to  have  listened  seriously  to  them 
coming  from  the  mouth  of  an  unambitious  bootmaker's 
son  involved  him  in  the  absurdity.  He  considered  that 
there  was  no  harm  in  the  lad,  rather  a  commendable  sort 
of  courage  and  some  notion  of  manners ;  allowing  for  his 
ignorance  of  the  convenable  in  putting  out  his  hand  to 


78  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

take  a  young  lady's,  with  the  plea  of  thanking  her.  He 
hoped  she  would  be  more  on  her  guard. 

Carinthia  was  sure  she  had  the  name  of  the  nobleman 
wishing  to  bestow  his  title  upon  the  beautiful  Henrietta. 
Lord  Fleetwood !  That  slender  thread  given  her  of  the 
character  of  her  brother's  rival  who  loved  the  mountains, 
was  woven  in  her  mind  with  her  passing  experience  of 
the  youth  they  had  left  behind  them,  until  the  two 
became  one,  a  highly  transfigured  one,  and  the  moimtain 
scenery  made  him  very  threatening  to  her  brother.  A 
silky-haired  youth,  brown-eyed,  unconquerable  in  adver- 
sity, immensely  rich,  fond  of  solitude,  curled,  decorated, 
bejewelled  by  all  the  elves  and  gnomes  of  inmost  soli- 
tude, must  have  marvellous  attractions,  she  feared.  She 
thought  of  him  so  much,  that  her  humble  spirit  con- 
ceived the  stricken  soul  of  the  woman  as  of  necessity  the 
pursuer ;  as  shamelessly,  though  timidly,  as  she  herself 
pursued  in  imagination  the  enchanted  secret  of  the 
mountain-land.  She  hoped  her  brother  Avould  not  sup- 
plicate, for  it  struck  her  that  the  lover  who  besieged  the 
lady  would  forfeit  her  roaming  and  hunting  fancy. 

'•I  wonder  what  that  gentleman  is  doing  now,"  she 
said  to  Chillon. 

He  grimaced  slightly,  for  her  sake;  he  would  have 
liked  to  inform  her,  for  the  sake  of  educating  her  in  the 
customs  of  the  world  she  was  going  to  enter,  that  the 
word  "  gentleman "  conveys  in  English  a  special  signifi- 
cation. 


THE  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHER  79 

Her  expression  of  wonder  whether  they  were  to  meet 
him  again  gave  Chillon  the  opportunity  of  saying : 
"It's  the  unlikeliest  thing  possible  —  at  all  events  in 
England." 

"But  I  think  we  shall/'  said  she. 

"My  dear,  you  meet  people  of  your  own  class;  you 
don't  meet  others." 

"  But  we  may  meet  anybody,  Chillon ! " 

"In  the  street.  I  suppose  you  would  not  stop  to 
speak  to  him  in  the  street." 

"  It  would  be  strange  to  see  him  in  the  street ! " 
Carinthia  said. 

"  Strange  or  not !  "  .  .  .  Chillon  thought  he  had  said 
sufficient.  She  was  under  his  protectorship,  otherwise 
he  would  not  have  alluded  to  the  observance  of  class 
distinctions.  He  felt  them  personally  in  this  case  be- 
cause of  their  seeming  to  stretch  grotesquely  by  the 
pretentious  heterodoxy  of  the  young  fellow,  whom 
nevertheless,  thinking  him  over  now  that  he  was 
mentioned,  he  approved  for  his  manliness  in  blimtly 
telling  his  origin  and  status. 

A  chalet  supplied  them  with  fresh  milk,  and  the  inn 
of  a  village  on  a  perch  with  the  midday  meal.  Their 
appetites  were  princely  and  swept  over  the  little  inn 
like  a  conflagration.  Only  after  clearing  it  did  they 
remember  the  rearward  pedestrian,  whose  probable 
wants  Chillon  Avas  urged  by  Carinthia  to  speak  of  to 
their  host.     They  pushed  on,  clambering  up,  scurrying 


80  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

down,  tramping  gaily,  till  by  degrees  the  chambers  of 
Carinthia's  imagination  closed  their  doors  and  would 
no  longer  intercommunicate.  Her  head  refused  to 
interest  her,  and  left  all  activity  to  her  legs  and  her 
eyes,  and  the  latter  became  unobservant,  except  of 
foot-tracks,  animal-like.  She  felt  that  she  was  a  fine 
machine,  and  nothing  else :  and  she  was  rapidly 
approaching  those  ladies! 

'^  You  will  tell  them  how  I  walked  with  you,"  she  said. 

"  Your  friends  over  yonder  ?  "  said  he. 

^'  So  that  they  may  not  think  me  so  ignorant, 
brother.'^  She  stumbled  on  the  helpless  word  in  a 
hasty  effort  to  cloak  her  vanity. 

He  laughed.  Her  desire  to  meet  the  critical  English 
ladies  with  a  towering  reputation  in  one  department 
of  human  enterprise  was  comprehensible,  considering 
the  natural  apprehensiveness  of  the  half  wild  girl 
before  such  a  meeting.  As  it  often  happens  with  the 
silly  phrases  of  simple  people,  the  wrong  word,  foolish 
although  it  was,  went  to  the  heart  of  the  hearer  and 
threw  a  more  charitable  light  than  ridicule  on  her. 
So  that  they  may  know  I  can  do  something  they  can- 
not do,  was  the  interpretation.  It  showed  her  deep 
knowledge  of  her  poorness  in  laying  bare  the  fact. 

Anxious  to  cheer  her,  he  said :  "  Come,  come,  you  can 
dance.  You  dance  well,  mother  has  told  me,  and  she 
was  a  judge.  You  ride,  you  swim,  you  have  a  voice  — 
for  country  songs,  at  all  events.     And  you're  a  bit  of  a 


THE   NATURAL   PHILOSOPHER  81 

botanist  too.  You're  good  at  English,  and  German ;  you 
had  a  French  governess  for  a  couple  of  years.  By  the 
way,  you  understand  the  use  of  a  walking-stick  in  self- 
defence  :  you  could  handle  a  sword  on  occasion." 

"  Father  trained  me/'  said  Carinthia.  "  I  can  fire  a 
pistol,  aiming." 

"With  a  good  aim  too.  Father  told  me  you  could. 
How  fond  he  was  of  his  girl !  Well,  bear  in  mind  that 
father  was  proud  of  you,  and  hold  up  your  head  wher- 
ever you  are." 

"I  will,"  she  said. 

He  assured  her  he  had  a  mind  to  have  a  bugle  blown 
at  the  entrance  of  the  Baths  for  a  challenge  to  the 
bathers  to  match  her  in  warlike  accomplishments. 

She  bit  her  lips :  she  could  not  bear  much  rallying 
on  the  subject  just  then. 

"  Which  is  the  hard  one  to  please  ? "  she  asked. 

"The  one  you  will  find  the  kinder  of  the  two." 

"  Henrietta  ?  " 

He  nodded. 

"Has  she  a  father?" 

"  A  gallant  old  admiral :  Admiral  Baldwin  Fakenham." 

"  I  am  glad  of  that ! "  Carinthia  sighed  out  heartily. 
"  And  he  is  v/ith  her  ?     And  likes  you,  Chillon  ?  " 

"On  the  whole,  I  think  he  does." 

"  A  brave  officer ! "  Such  a  father  would  be  sure  to 
like  him. 

So  the  domestic  prospect  was  hopeful. 


82  THE  AMAZING  MARKIAGE 

At  sunset  tliey  stood  on  the  hills  overlooking  the 
basin  of  the  Baths,  all  enfolded  in  swathes  of  pink  and 
crimson  up  to  the  shining  grey  of  a  high  heaven  that 
had  the  fresh  brightness  of  the  morning. 

"We  are  not  tired  in  the  slightest/'  said  Carinthia, 
trifling  with  the  vision  of  a  cushioned  rest  below.  "I 
could  go  on  through  the  night  quite  comfortably." 

"  Wait  till  you  wake  up  in  your  little  bed  to-morrow/' 
Chillon  replied  stoutly,  to  drive  a  chill  from  his  lover's 
heart,  that  had  seized  it  at  the  bare  suggestion  of 
their  going  on. 


CHAPTER  Vn 

THE    lady's    letter 


Is  not  the  lover  a  prophet?  He  that  fervently  de- 
sires may  well  be  one ;  his  hurried  nature  is  alive 
with  warmth  to  break  the  possible  blow:  and  if  they 
were  not  needed  they  were  shadows ;  and  if  fulfilled, 
was  he  not  convinced  of  his  misfortune  by  a  dark 
anticipation  that  rarely  erred?  Descending  the  hills, 
he  remembered  several  omens :  the  sun  had  sunk  when 
he  looked  down  on  the  villas  and  clustered  houses, 
not  an  edge  of  the  orb  had  been  seen;  the  admiral's 
quarters  in  the  broad-faced  hotel  had  worn  an  ap- 
pearance resembling  the  empty  house  of  yesterday; 
the    encounter    with   the   fellow   on    the   rocks    had   a 


bad  whisper  of  impish,  tripping.  And  what  moved 
Carinthia  to  speak  of  going  on? 

A  letter  was  handed  to  Chillon  in  the  hall  of  the 
admiral's  hotel,  where  his  baggage  had  already  been 
delivered.  The  manager  was  deploring  the  circum- 
stance that  his  rooms  were  full  to  the  roof,  when 
Chillon  said :  "  Well,  we  must  wash  and  eat " ;  and 
Carinthia,  from  watching  her  brother's  forehead  during 
his  perusal  of  the  letter,  declared  her  readiness  for 
anything.  He  gave  her  the  letter  to  read  by  herself 
while  preparing  to  sit  at  table,  unwilling  to  ask  her 
for  a  further  tax  on  her  energies  —  but  it  was  she 
who  had  spoken  of  going  on!  He  thought  of  it  as  of 
a  debt  she  had  contracted  and  might  be  supposed  to 
think  payable  to  their  misfortune. 

She  read  off  the  first  two  sentences. 

"We  can  have  a  carriage  here,  Chillon;  order  a 
carriage ;  I  shall  get  as  much  sleep  in  a  carriage  as  in 
a  bed ;  I  shall  enjoy  driving  at  night,"  she  said  imme- 
diately, and  strongly  urged  it  and  forced  him  to  yield, 
the  manager  observing  that  a  carriage  could  be  had. 

In  the  privacy  of  her  room,  admiring  the  clear  flow- 
ing hand,  she  read  the  words,  delicious  in  their 
strangeness  to  her,  notwithstanding  the  heavy  news, 
as  though  they  were  sung  out  of  a  night-sky :  — 

"Most  picturesque  of  Castles! 
May  none  these  marks  efface, 
For  they  appeal  from  Tyranny  .  .  . 


84  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"We  start  at  noon  to-day.  Sailing  orders  have  been 
issued,  and  I  could  only  have  resisted  them  in  my  own 
person  by  casting  myself  overboard.  I  go  like  the 
boat  behind  the  vessel.  You  were  expected  yesterday, 
at  latest  this  morning.  I  have  seen  boxes  in  the  hall, 
with  a  name  on  them  not  foreign  to  me.  Why  does  the 
master  tarry?  Sir,  of  your  valiance  you  should  have 
held  to  your  good  vow,  quoth  the  damozel,  for  now  you 
see  me  sore  perplexed  and  that  you  did  not  your  devoir 
is  my  affliction.  Where  lingers  chivalry,  she  should 
have  proceeded,  if  not  with  my  knight?  I  feast  on 
your  regrets.  I  would  not  have  you  less  than  miser- 
able :  and  I  fear  the  reason  is,  that  I  am  not  so  very, 
very  sure  you  will  be  so  at  all  or  very  hugely,  as  I 
would  command  it  of  you  for  just  time  enough  to 
see  that  change  over  your  eyebrows  I  know  so  well. 

"  If  you  had  seen  a  certain  Henrietta  yesterday  you 
would  have  the  picture  of  how  you  ought  to  look.  The 
admiral  was  heard  welcoming  a  new  arrival  —  you  can 
hear  him.  She  ran  down  the  stairs  quicker  than  any 
cascade  of  this  district,  she  would  have  made  a  bet  ^vith 
Livia  that  it  could  be  no  one  else  —  her  hand  was  out  — 
before  she  was  aware  of  the  difference  it  was  locked  in 
Lord  F.'s ! 

"Let  the  guilty  absent  suffer  for  causing  such  a  be- 
trayal of  disappointment.  I  must  be  avenged !  But  if 
indeed  you  are  unhappy  and  would  like  to  chide  the 
innocent,  I  am  full  of  compassion  for  the  poor  gentle- 


THE  lady's  letter  85 

man  inheriting  my  legitimate  feelings  of  wrath,  and  beg 
merely  that  he  will  not  pour  them  out  on  me  with  pen 
and  paper,  but  from  his  lips  and  eyes. 

"  Time  pressing,  I  chatter  no  more.  The  destination 
is  Livia's  beloved  Baden.  We  rest  a  night  in  the  city 
of  Mozart,  a  night  at  Munich,  a  night  at  Stuttgart. 
Baden  will  detain  my  cousin  full  a  week.  She  has 
Captain  Abrane  and  Sir  Meeson  Corby  in  attendance  — 
her  long  shadow  and  her  short:  both  devoted  to  Lord 
F.,  to  win  her  smile,  and  how  he  drives  them !  The 
captain  has  been  paraded  on  the  promenade,  to  the  stu- 
pefaction of  the  foreigner.  Princes,  counts,  generals, 
diplomats  passed  under  him  in  awe.  I  am  told  that  he 
is  called  St.  Christopher. 

^^  Why  do  we  go  thus  hastily  ?  my  friend,  this  letter 
has  to  be  concealed.  I  know  some  one  who  sees  in  the 
dark. 

"  Think  no  harm  of  Livia.  She  is  bent  upon  my 
worldly  advantage,  and  that  is  plain  even  to  the  person 
rejecting  it.  How  much  more  so  must  it  be  to  papa, 
though  he  likes  you,  and  when  you  are  near  him  would 
perhaps,  in  a  fit  of  unworldliness,  be  almost  as  reck- 
less as  the  creature  he  calls  madcap  and  would  rather 
call  countess.  ISTo !  sooner  with  a  will-o'-the-wisp,  my 
friend.  Who  could  ever  know  where  the  man  was 
when  he  himself  never  knows  where  he  is.  He  is  the 
wind  that  bloweth  as  it  listeth  —  because  it  is  without 
an  aim  or  always  with  a  new  one.     And  am  I  the  one 


86  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

to  direct  him  ?  I  need  direction.  My  lord  and  sov- 
ereign must  fix  my  mind.  I  am  volatile,  earthly,  not 
to  be  trusted  if  I  do  not  worship.  He  himself  said  to 
me  that  —  he  reads  our  characters.  ^Nothing  but  a 
proved  hero  will  satisfy  Henrietta,'  his  words  !  And 
the  hero  must  be  shining  like  a  beacon-fire  kept  in 
a  blaze.  Quite  true ;  I  own  it.  Is  Chillon  Kirby  satis- 
fied ?     He  ought  to  be. 

"But  oh!  —  to  be  yoked  is  an  insufferable  thought, 
unless  we  name  all  the  conditions.  But  to  be  yoked  to 
a  creature  of  impulses!  Really  I  could  only  describe 
his  erratic  nature  by  commending  you  to  the  study  of 
a  dragon-fly.  It  would  map  you  an  idea  of  what  he  has 
been  in  the  twenty-four  hours  since  we  had  him  here. 
They  tell  me  a  vain  sort  of  person  is  the  cause.  Can 
she  be  the  cause  of  his  resolving  to  have  a  residence 
here,  to  buy  up  half  the  valley  —  erecting  a  royal  palace 
—  and  marking  out  the  site  —  raving  about  it  in  the 
wildest  language,  poetical  if  it  had  been  a  little  reason- 
able:—  and  then,  after  a  night,  suddenly,  unaccoimt- 
ably,  hating  the  place,  and  being  under  the  necessity  of 
flying  from  it  in  hot  haste,  tearing  us  all  away,  as  if 
we  Avere  attached  to  a  kite  that  will  neither  mount  not 
fall,  but  rushes  about  headlong.  Has  he  heard,  or  sus- 
pected ?  or  seen  certain  boxes  bearing  a  name  ?  Livia 
has  no  suspicion,  though  she  thinks  me  wonderfully 
contented  in  so  dull  a  place,  where  it  has  rained  nine 
days  in  a  fortnight.     I  ask  myself  whether  my  manner 


THE  lady's  letter  87 

of  greeting  him  betrayed  my  expectation  of  another. 
He  has  brains.  It  is  the  greatest  of  errors  to  suppose 
him  at  all  like  the  common  run  of  rich  young  noble- 
men. He  seems  to  thrist  for  brilliant  wits  and  original 
sayings.  His  ambition  is  to  lead  all  England  in  every- 
thing! I  readily  acknowledge  that  he  has  generous 
ideas  too ;  but  try  to  hold  him,  deny  him  his  liberty, 
and  it  would  be  seen  how  desperate  and  relentless  he 
would  be  to  get  loose.  Of  this  I  am  convinced:  he 
would  be  either  the  most  abject  of  lovers,  or  a  woman 
(if  it  turned  out  not  to  be  love)  would  find  him  the  most 
unscrupulous  of  yokefellows.  Yokefellow!  She  would 
not  have  her  reason  in  consenting.  A  lamb  and  a  furi- 
ous bull!  Papa  and  I  have  had  a  serious  talk.  He 
shut  his  ears  to  my  comparisons,  but  admits,  that  as  I 
am  the  principal  person  concerned,  etc.  Eich  and  a 
nobleman  is  too  tempting  for  an  anxious  father;  and 
Livia's  influence  is  paramount.  She  has  not  said  a 
syllable  in  depreciation  of  you.  That  is  to  her  credit. 
She  also  admits  that  I  raust  yield  freely  if  at  all,  and 
she  grants  me  the  use  of  similes ;  but  her  tactics  are  to 
contest  them  one  by  one,  and  the  admirable  pretender  is 
not  as  shifty  as  the  mariner's  breeze,  he  is  not  like  the 
wandering  spark  in  burnt  paper,  of  which  you  cannot 
say  whether  it  is  chasing  or  chased :  it  is  I  who  am  the 
shifty  pole  to  the  steadiest  of  magnets.  She  is  a  prin- 
cess in  other  things  besides  her  superiority  to  Physics. 
There  will  be  wild  scenes  at  Baden. 


88  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"  My  Diary  of  to-day  is  all  bestowed  on  you.  What 
have  I  to  write  in  it  except  the  pair  of  commas  under 
the  last  line  of  yesterday  —  ^ He  has  not  come!^  Oh! 
to  be  caring  for  a  he. 

"  0  that  I  were  with  your  sister  now,  on  one  side  of 
her  idol,  to  correct  her  extravagant  idolatry  !  I  long  for 
her.  I  had  a  number  of  nice  little  phrases  to  pet  her 
with. 

^'  You  have  said  (I  have  it  written)  that  men  who  are 
liked  by  men  are  the  best  friends  for  women.  In  which 
case,  the  earl  should  be  worthy  of  our  friendship ;  he  is 
liked.  Captain  Abrane  and  Sir  Meeson,  in  spite  of  the 
hard  service  he  imposes  on  them  with  such  comical 
haughtiness,  incline  to  speak  well  of  him,  and  Methuen 
Eivers  —  here  for  two  days  on  his  way  to  his  embassy  at 
Vienna  —  assured  us  he  is  the  rarest  of  gentlemen  on  the 
point  of  honour  of  his  word.  They  have  stories  of  him, 
to  confirm  Livia's  eulogies,  showing  him  punctilious  to 
chivalry.  No  man  alive  is  like  him  in  that,  they  say. 
He  grieves  me.  All  that  you  have  to  fear  is  my  pity 
for  one  so  sensitive.  So  speed,  sir !  It  is  not  good  for 
us  to  be  much  alone,  and  I  am  alone  when  you  are 
absent. 

''  I  hear  military  music  ! 

"How  grand  that  music  makes  the  dullest  world 
appear  in  a  minute.  There  is  a  magic  in  it  to  bring  you 
to  me  from  the  most  dreadful  of  distances.  —  Chillon !  it 
would  kill  me  !  —  Writing  here,  and  you  perhaps  behind 


THE  lady's  letter  89 

the  hill,  I  can  hardly  bear  it ;  —  I  am  torn  away,  my 
hand  will  not  any  more.  This  music  burst  out  to  mock 
me !     Adieu. 

"I  am  yours. 

^'Your  Henrietta. 
"  A  kiss  to  the  sister.     It  is  owing  to  her." 

Carinthia  kissed  the  letter  on  that  last  line.  It 
seemed  to  her  to  end  in  a  celestial  shower. 

She  was  oppressed  by  wonder  of  the  writer  who  could 
run  like  the  rill  of  the  mountains  in  written  speech ;  and 
her  recollection  of  the  contents  perpetually  hurried  to 
the  close,  which  was  more  in  her  way  of  writing,  for 
there  the  brief  sentences  had  a  throb  beneath  them. 

She  did  not  speak  of  the  letter  to  her  brother  when 
she  returned  it.  A  night  in  the  carriage,  against  his 
shoulder,  was  her  happy  prospect,  in  the  thought  that 
she  would  be  with  her  dearest  all  night,  touching  him 
asleep,  and  in  the  sweet  sense  of  being  near  to  the 
beloved  of  the  fairest  angel  of  her  sex.  They  pursued 
their  journey  soon  after  Anton  was  dismissed  with  warm 
shakes  of  the  hand  and  appointments  for  a  possible  year 
in  the  future. 

The  blast  of  the  postillion's  horn  on  the  dark  highway 
moved  Chillon  to  say :  "  This  is  what  they  call  posting, 
my  dear." 

She  replied:  "Tell  me,  brother:  I  do  not  under- 
stand,  ^  Let  none  these  marks  efface,^  at  the  commence- 


90  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

ment,  after  most  '  picturesque  of  Castles  : '  —  ttiat  is 
you." 

"  They  are  quoted  from  tlie  verses  of  a  lord  who  was 
a  poet,  addressed  to  the  castle  on  Lake  Leman.  She 
will  read  them  to  you." 

"Will  she?" 

The  mention  of  the  lord  set  Carinthia  thinking  of 
the  lord  whom  that  bea^utiful  she  pitied  because  she 
was  forced  to  wound  him  and  he  was  very  sensitive. 
Wrapped  in  Henrietta,  she  slept  through  the  joltings  of 
the  carriage,  the  grinding  of  the  wheels,  the  blowing  of 
the  horn,  the  flashes  of  the  late  moonlight  and  the 
kindling  of  dawn. 


CHAPTEE  yill 

OF  THE  EXCOUXTER  OF  TWO  STRANGE  YOUNG  MEN  AND 
THEIR  consorting:  in  which  the  male  READER  IS 
REQUESTED  TO  BEAR  IN  MIND  WHAT  WILD  CREATURE 
HE  WAS  IN  HIS  YOUTH,  WHILE  THE  FEMALE  SHOULD 
MARVEL    CREDULOUSLY 

The  young  man  who  fancied  he  had  robed  himself  in 
the  plain  homespun  of  a  natural  philosopher  at  the  age 
of  twenty-three  journeyed  limping  leisurely  in  the 
mountain  maid  Carinthia's  footsteps,  thankful  to  the 
Fates  for  having  seen  her ;  and  reproving  the  remainder 
of  superstition  within  him,  which  would  lay  him  open 


ENCOUNTER  OF  TWO  STRANGE  YOUNG  MEN   91 

-to  smarts  of  evil  fortune  if  he  encouraged  a  senseless 
gratitude  for  good;  seeing  that  we  are  simply  to  take 
what  happens  to  us.  The  little  inn  of  the  village  on 
the  perch  furnished  him  a  night's  lodging  and  a  laugh 
of  satisfaction  to  hear  of  a  yoimg  lady  and  gentleman, 
and  their  guide,  who  had  devoured  everything  eatable 
half  a  day  in  advance  of  him,  all  save  the  bread  and 
butter,  and  a  few  scraps  of  meat,  apologetically  spread 
for  his  repast  by  the  maid  of  the  inn:  not  enough  for 
a  bantam  cock,  she  said,  promising  eggs  for  breakfast. 
He  vowed  with  an  honest  heart,  that  it  was  more  than 
enough,  and  he  was  nourished  by  sympathy  with  the 
appetites  of  his  precursors  and  the  maid's  description 
of  their  deeds.  That  name,  Carinthia,  went  a  good  way 
to  fill  him. 

Farther  on  he  had  plenty,  but  less  contentment.  He 
was  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  he  had  expected  to 
meet  Carinthia  again  at  the  Baths.  Her  absence  dealt 
a  violent  shock  to  the  aerial  structure  he  dwelt  in ;  for 
though  his  ardour  for  the  life  of  the  solitudes  was 
unfeigned,  as  was  his  calm  overlooking  of  social  dis- 
tinctions, the  self-indulgent  dreamer  became  troubled 
with  an  alarming  sentience,  that  for  him  to  share  the 
passions  of  the  world  of  men  was  to  risk  the  falling 
lower  than  most.  Women  are  a  cause  of  dreams,  but 
they  are  dreaded  enemies  of  his  kind  of  dream,  deadly 
enemies  of  the  immaterial  dreamers ;  and  should  one  of 
them  be  taken  on  board  a  vessel  of  the  vapourish  texture 


92  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

young  Woodseer  sailed  in  above  the  clouds  lightly  while 
he  was  in  it  alone,  questions  of  past,  future,  and  present, 
the  three  weights  upon  humanity,  bear  it  down,  and  she 
must  go,  or  the  vessel  sinks.  And  cast  out  of  it,  what 
was  he  ?  The  asking  exposed  him  to  the  steadiest  wind 
the  civilized  world  is  known  to  blow.  Prom  merely 
thinking  upon  one  of  the  daughters  of  earth,  he  was 
made  to  feel  his  position  in  that  world,  though  he 
refused  to  understand  it,  and  assisted  by  two  days  of 
hard  walking  he  reduced  Carinthia  to  an  abstract  enthu- 
siasm, no  very  serious  burden.  His  note-book  sustained 
it  easily.  He  wrote  her  name  in  simple  fondness  of  the 
name ;  a  verse,  and  hints  for  more,  and  some  sentences, 
which  he  thought  profound.  They  were  composed  as  he 
sat  by  the  roadway,  on  the  tops  of  hills,  and  in  a  boat 
crossing  a  dark  green  lake  deep  under  wooded  mountain 
walls :  things  of  priceless  value. 

It  happened,  that  midway  on  the  lake  he  perceived 
his  boatman  about  to  prime  a  pistol  to  murder  the 
mild-eyed  stillness,  and  he  called  to  the  man  in  his 
best  German  to  desist.  During  the  altercation,  there 
passed  a  countryman  of  his  in  another  of  the  punts, 
who  said  gravely:  "I  thank  you  for  that."  It  was 
early  morning,  and  they  had  the  lake  to  themselves, 
each  deeming  the  other  an  intruder ;  for  the  courtship 
of  solitude  wanes  w^hen  we  are  haunted  by  a  second 
person  in  pursuit  of  it ;  he  is  discolouring  matter  in  our 
pure  crystal   cup.      Such  is   the  worship   of    the  pict- 


ENCOUNTER  OF  TWO  STRANGE  YOUNG  MEN   93 

uresque;  and  it  would  appear  to  say,  that  the  spirit 
of  man  finds  itself  yet  in  the  society  of  barbarians. 
The  case  admits  of  good  pleading  either  way,  even  upon 
the  issue  whether  the  exclusive  or  the  vulgar  be  the 
more  barbarous.  But  in  those  days  the  solicitation  of 
the  picturesque  had  been  revived  by  a  poet  of  some 
impassioned  rhetoric,  and  two  devotees  could  hardly 
meet,  as  the  two  meet  here,  and  not  be  mutually 
obscurants. 

They  stepped  ashore  in  turn  on  the  same  small  shoot 
of  land  where  a  farm-house  near  a  chapel  in  the  shadow 
of  cliffs  did  occasional  service  for  an  inn.  Each  had 
intended  to  pass  a  day  and  a  night  in  this  lonely  dwell- 
ing-place by  the  lake,  but  a  rival  was  less  to  be  tol- 
erated there  than  in  love,  and  each  awaited  the  other's 
departure,  with  an  air  that  said:  "You  are  in  my 
sunlight '' ;  and  going  deeper,  more  sternly  :  "  Sir,  you 
are  an  offence  to  Nature's  pudency !  " 

Woodseer  was  the  more  placable  of  the  two ;  he  had 
taken  possession  of  the  bench  outside,  and  he  had  his 
note-book  and  much  profundity  to  haul  up  with  it  while 
fish  were  frying.  His  countryman  had  rushed  inside 
to  avoid  him,  and  remained  there  pacing  the  chamber 
like  a  lion  newly  caged.  Their  boatmen  were  brotherly 
in  the  anticipation  of  provision  and  payment. 

After  eating  his  fish,  Woodseer  decided  abruptly,  that 
as  he  could  not  have  the  spot  to  himself,  memorable 
as  it  would  have  been  to  intermarry  with  Nature  in  so 


94  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

sacred  a  well-depth,  of  the  mountains,  he  had  better  be 
walking  and  climbing.  Another  boat  paddling  np  the 
lake  had  been  spied:  solitude  was  not  merely  shared 
with  a  rival,  but  violated  by  numbers.  In  the  first  case, 
we  detest  the  man ;  in  the  second,  we  fly  from  an  out- 
raged scene.  He  wrote  a  line  or  so  in  his  book,  hurriedly 
paid  his  bill,  and  started,  full  of  the  matter  he  had 
briefly  committed  to  his  pages. 

At  noon,  sitting  beside  the  beck  that  runs  from  the 
lake,  he  was  overtaken  by  the  gentleman  he  had  left 
behind,  and  accosted  in  the  informal  English  style, 
with  all  the  politeness  possible  to  a  nervously  blunt 
manner:  "This  book  is  yours,  —  I  have  no  doubt  it  is 
yours ;  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  restore  it ;  I  should  be 
glad  to  be  the  o^raer  —  writer  of  the  contents,  I  mean. 
I  have  to  beg  your  excuse;  I  found  it  lying  open; 
I  looked  at  the  page,  I  looked  through  the  whole ;  I  am 
quite  at  your  mercy." 

AVoodseer  jumped  at  the  sight  of  his  note-book,  felt 
for  the  emptiness  of  his  pocket,  and  replied :  "  Thank 
you,  thank  you.  It's  of  use  to  me,  though  to  no  one 
else." 

"  You  pardon  me  ?  " 

"Certainly.     I  should  have  done  it  myself." 

"I  cannot  offer  you  my  apologies  as  a  stranger." 
Lord  Fleetwood  was  the  name  given. 

Woodseer's  plebeian  was  exchanged  for  it,  and  he 
stood  up. 


ENCOUISITER   OF   TWO   STRANGE   YOUXG   MEN      95 

The  young  lord  had  fair,  straight,  thin  features,  with 
large  restless  eyes  that  lighted  quickly,  and  a  mouth 
that  was  winning  in  his  present  colloquial  mood. 

"  You  could  have  done  the  same  ?  I  should  find  it 
hard  to  forgive  the  man  who  pried  into  my  secret 
thoughts,"  he  remarked. 

"There  they  are.  If  one  jDuts  them  to  paper!  .  .  .'^ 
Woodseer  shrugged. 

"Yes,  yes.  They  never  last  long  enough  with  me. 
So  far  I'm  safe.  One  page  led  to  another.  You  can 
meditate.  I  noticed  some  remarks  on  Eeligions.  You 
think  deeply." 

Woodseer  was  of  that  opinion,  but  modesty  urged 
him  to  reply  with  a  small  flourish.  "'  Just  a  few  heads 
of  ideas.  When  the  wind  puffs  down  a  sooty  chimney 
the  air  is  filled  with  little  blacks  that  settle  pretty 
much  like  the  notes  in  this  book  of  mine.  There  they 
wait  for  another  puff,  or  my  fingers  to  stamp  them." 

"  I  could  tell  you  were  the  owner  of  that  book,"  said 
Lord  Fleetwood.  He  swept  his  forehead  feverishly. 
"  What  a  power  it  is  to  relieve  one's  brain  by  writing ! 
May  I  ask  you,  which  one  of  the  Universities  ?  .  .  .  " 

The  burden  of  this  question  had  a  ring  of  irony  to 
one  whom  it  taught  to  feel  rather  defiantly,  that  he 
carried  the  blazon  of  a  reeking  tramp.  "My  Univer- 
sity," Woodseer  replied,  "was  a  merchant's  oflB.ce  in 
Bremen  for  some  months.  I  learnt  more  Greek  and 
Latin  in  Bremen  than  business.^   I  was  invalided  home, 


96  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

and  then  tried  a  merchant's  office  in  London.  I  put  on 
my  hat  one  day,  and  walked  into  the  country.  My 
College  fellows  were  hawkers,  tinkers,  tramps  and 
ploughmen,  choughs  and  crows.  A  volume  of  our  Poets 
and  a  History  of  Philosophy  composed  my  library.  I 
had  scarce  any  money,  so  I  learnt  how  to  idle  inexpen- 
sively —  a  good  first  lesson.  We're  at  the  bottom  of  the 
world  when  we  take  to  the  road;  we  see  men  as  they 
were  in  the  beginning  —  not  so  eager  for  harness  till 
they  get  acquainted  with  hunger,  as  I  did,  and  studied 
in  myself  the  old  animal  having  his  head  pushed  into 
the  collar  to  earn  a  feed  of  corn." 

Woodseer  laughed,  adding,  that  he  had  been  of  a 
serious  mind  in  those  days  of  the  alternation  of  smooth 
indifference  and  sharp  necessity,  and  he  had  plucked  a 
flower  from  them. 

His  nature  prompted  him  to  speak  of  himself  with 
simple  candour,  as  he  had  done  spontaneously  to  Chillon 
Kirby,  yet  he  Avas  now  anxious  to  let  his  companion  know 
at  once  the  common  stuff  he  was  made  of,  together  with 
the  great  stuff  he  contained.  He  grew  conscious  of  an 
over-anxiety,  and  was  uneasy,  recollecting  how  he  had 
just  spoken  about  his  naturalness,  dimly  if  at  all 
apprehending  the  cause  of  this  disturbance  within. 
What  is  a  lord  to  a  philosopher!  But  the  world  is 
around  us  as  a  cloak,  if  not  a  coat  ;  in  his  ignorance  he 
supposed  it  specially  due  to  a  lord  seeking  acquaintance 
with  him,  that  he  should   expose   his   condition:  doing 


ENCOUNTER   OF   TWO   STRANGE   YOUNG   MEN      97 

the  which  appeared  to  subject  him  to  parade  his  intel- 
lectual treasures  and  capacity  for  shaping  sentences ;  and 
the  effect  upon  Lord  Fleetwood  was  an  incentive  to  the 
display.  Nevertheless  he  had  a  fretful  desire  to  escape 
from  the  discomposing  society  of  a  lord;  he  fixed  his 
knapsack  and  began  to  saunter. 

The  young  lord  was  at  his  elbow.  "  I  can't  part  with 
you.     Will  you  allow  me  ?  " 

Woodseer  was  puzzled  and  had  to  say :  "  If  you  wish 
it." 

"I  do  wish  it:  an  hour's  walk  with  you.  One  does 
not  meet  a  man  like  you  every  day.  I  have  to  join  a 
circle  of  mine  in  Baden,  but  there's  no  hurry ;  I  could  be 
disengaged  for  a  week.  And  I  have  things  to  ask  you, 
owing  to  my  indiscretion  —  but  you  have  excused  it." 

Woodseer  turned  for  a  farewell  gaze  at  the  great 
Watzmann,  and  saluted  him. 

"  Splendid,"  said  Lord  Fleetwood  5  "  but  don't  clap 
names  on  the  mountains. — I  saw  written  in  your  book: 
'  A  text  for  Dada. '  You  write :  '  A  despotism  would  prom  re 
a  perfect  solitude,  hut  kill  the  ghost.'  That  was  my  thought 
at  the  place  where  we  were  at  the  lake.  I  had  it.  Tell 
me  —  though  I  could  not  have  written  it,  and  '  ghost ' 
is  just  the  word,  the  exact  word  —  tell  me,  are  you  of 
Welsh  blood?  'Dad'  is  good  Welsh  —  pronounce  it 
hard." 

Woodseer  answered :  "  My  mother  was  a  Glamor- 
ganshire woman.     My  father,  I  know,  walked   up   from 


98  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Wales,  mending  boots  on  Ms  road  for  a  livelihood. 
He  is  not  a  bad  scholar,  he  knows  Greek  enough  to  like 
it.  He  is  a  Dissenting  preacher.  When  I  strike  a 
truism,  I've  a  habit  of  scoring  it  to  give  him  a  peg  or 
tuning-fork  for  one  of  his  discourses.  He's  a  man  of 
talent ;  he  taught  himself,  and  he  taught  me  more  than  I 
learnt  at  school.  He  is  a  thinker  in  his  way.  He  loves 
Nature  too.  I  rather  envy  him  in  some  respects.  He 
and  I  are  hunters  of  Wisdom  on  different  tracks ;  and  he, 
as  he  says  ^  waits  for  me.'     He's  patient ! " 

"  Ah,  and  I  wanted  to  ask  you,"  Lord  Fleetwood  ob- 
served, bursting  with  it,  "I  was  puzzled  by  a  name 
you  Avrite  here  and  there  near  the  end,  and  permit 
me  to  ask  it :  Carinthia !  It  cannot  be  the  country  ? 
You  write  after  the  name:  'A  beautiful  Gorgon  — 
a  haggard  Venus.'  It  seized  me.  I  have  had  the  face 
before  my  eyes  ever  since.  You  must  mean  a  woman. 
I  can't  be  deceived  in  allusions  to  a  woman:  they 
have  heart  in  them.  You  met  her  somewhere  about 
Carinthia,  and  gave  her  the  name  ?  You  write  — 
may  I  refer  to  the  book  ?  " 

He  received  the  book  and  flew  through  the  leaves : 
"Here  —  ^A  panting  look':  you  write  again:  'A  look 
of  beaten  flame :  a  look  of  one  tcho  has  run  and  at  last 
beholds ! '  But  that  is  a  living  face :  I  see  her !  Here 
again:  'From  minute  to  minute  she  is  the  rock  that 
loses  the  sun  at  night  and  reddens  in  the  morning' 
You  could  not  create  an  idea  of  a  woman  to  move 


ENCOUNTER  OF  TWO  STRANGE  YOUNG  MEN   99 

you    like    that.     No   one    could,   I   am    certain    of    it, 
certain;    if    so,   you're   a  wizard  —  I    swear    you    are. 
But   that's   a  face   high   over    beauty.     Just  to  know 
there  is  a  woman  like  her,  is  an  antidote.     You  com- 
pare  her  to   a  rock.     Who   would   imagine   a  compar- 
ison  of  a   woman   to   a  rock !     But    rock   is   the   very 
picture  of  beautiful  Gorgon,  haggard  Venus.     Tell  me  [ 
you  met  her,  you  saw  her.     I  want  only  to  hear  she  ^ 
lives,  she  is  in  the  world.     Beautiful  v*^omen  compared  j 
to  roses  may  whirl  away  with  their  handsome  dragoons  !  i 
A  pang  from  them  is  a  thing  to  be  ashamed  of.     And  / 
there  are  men  who  trot  about  whining  with  it !     But  / 
a  Carinthia  makes   pain   honourable.     You  have   done 
what  I  thought  impossible  —  fused  a  woman's  face  and 
grand  scenery,  to  make  them  inseparable.     She  might 
be  wicked  for  me.     I  should  see   a  bright  rim  round 
hatred  of  her !  —  the  rock   you   describe.     I  could  en-/ 
dure  horrors  and  not   annihilate   her!     I  should  thinW 
her  sacred.'^  * 

Woodseer  turned  about  to  have  a  look  at  the  person 
who  was  even  quicker  than  he  at  realizing  a  person 
from  a  hint  of  description,  and  almost  insanely  ex- 
travagant in  the  pitch  of  the  things  he  uttered  to  a 
stranger.  For  himself,  he  was  open  with  everybody, 
his  philosophy  not  allowing  that  strangers  existed  on 
earth.  But  the  presence  of  a  lord  brought  the  conven- 
tional world  to  his  feelings,  though  at  the  same  time 
the  title    seemed  to  sanction  the  exceptional    abrupt- 


/ 


-4. 


100  THE  AMAZING  MAKRIAGE 

ness  and  wildness  of  this  lord.  As  for  suspecting 
him  to  be  mad,  it  wonld  have  been  a  common  idea: 
no  stretching  of  speech  or  overstepping  of  social  rules 
could  waken  a  suspicion  so  spiritless  in  Woodseer. 

He  said:  "I  can  tell  you  I  met  her  and  she  lives. 
I  could  as  soon  swim  in  that  torrent  or  leap  the  moun- 
tain as  repeat  what  she  spoke,  or  sketch  a  feature  of 
her.  She  goes  into  the  blood,  she  is  a  new  idea  of 
women.  She  has  the  face  that  would  tempt  a  gypsy 
to  evil  tellings.  I  could  think  of  it  as  a  history  written 
in  a  line:  Carinthia,  Saint  and  Martyr!  As  for  com- 
parisons, they  are  flowers  thrown  into  the  fire." 

"I  have  had  that — I  have  thought  that,"  said  Lord 
Fleetwood.  "Go  on;  talk  of  her,  pray;  without  com- 
parisons. I  detest  them.  How  did  you  meet  her  ? 
What  made  you  part  ?  AVhere  is  she  now  ?  I  have  no 
wish  to  find  her,  but  I  want  thoroughly  to  believe  in 
her." 

Another  than  Woodseer  would  have  perceived  the 
young  lord's  malady.  Here  w^as  one  bitten  by  the 
serpent  of  love,  and  athirst  for  an  image  of  the  sex  to 
serve  for  the  cooling  herb,  as  youth  will  be.  Woodseer 
put  it  down  to  a  curious  imaginative  fellowship  with 
himself.  He  forgot  the  lord,  and  supposed  he  had 
found  his  own  likeness,  less  gifted  in  speech.  After 
talking  of  Carinthia  more  and  more  in  the  abstract,  he 
fell  upon  his  discovery  of  the  Great  Secret  of  life, 
against  which  his  hearer  struggled   for  a  time,  though 


EKCOUNTER   OF   TWO   STRANGE  YOUNG  MEN      101 

that  was  cooling  to  him,  too ;  but  ultimately  there  was 
no  resistance,  and  so  deep  did  they  sink  into  the  idea 
of  pure  contemplation,  that  the  idea  of  woman  seemed 
to  have  become  a  part  of  it.  No  stronger  proof  of  their 
aethereal  conversational  earnestness  could  be  offered. 
A  locality  was  given  to  the  Great  Secret,  and  of  course 
it  was  the  place  where  the  most  poAverful  recent 
impression  had  been  stamped  on  the  mind  of  the 
discoverer;  the  shado^^'y  valley  rolling  from  the  slate- 
rock.  Woodseer  was  too  artistic  a  dreamer  to  present 
the  passing  vision  of  Carinthia  with  any  associates  there. 
She  passed :  the  solitude  accepted  her  and  lost  her ;  and 
it  was  the  richer  for  the  one  swift  gleam :  she  brought 
no  trouble,  she  left  no  regrets ;  she  was  the  ghost  of  the 
rocky  obscurity.  But  now  remembering  her  mountain 
carol,  he  chanced  to  speak  of  her  as  a  girl. 

"  She  is  a  girl  ?  "  cried  Lord  Fleetwood,  frowning  over 
an  utter  revolution  of  sentiment  at  the  thought  of  the 
beautiful  Gorgon  being  a  girl;  for  rapid  as  he  was  to 
imagine,  he  had  raised  a  solid  fabric  upon  his  concep- 
tion of  Carinthia  the  woman,  necessarily  the  woman  — 
logically.  Who  but  the  woman  could  look  the  Gorgon ! 
He  tried  to  explain  it  to  be  impossible  for  a  girl  to  wear 
the  look :  and  his  notion  evidently  was,  that  it  had  come 
upon  a  beautiful  face  in  some  staring  horror  of  a  world 
that  had  bitten  the  tender  woman.  She  touched  him 
sympathetically  through  the  pathos. 

Woodseer  flung    out  vociferously  for    the   contrary. 


102  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Who  but  a  girl  could  look  the  beautiful  G-orgon !  What 
other  could  seem  an  emanation  of  the  mountain  solitude  ? 
A  woman  would  instantly  breathe  the  world  on  it  to 
destroy  it.  Hers  would  be  the  dramatic  and  not  the 
poetic  face.  It  would  shriek  of  man,  wake  the  echoes 
with  the  tale  of  man,  slaughter  all  quietude.  But  a 
girl's  face  has  no  story  of  poisonous  intrusion.  She 
indeed  may  be  cast  in  the  terrors  of  Nature,  and  yet  be 
sweet  with  Nature,  beautiful  because  she  is  purely  of 
Nature.  Woodseer  did  his  best  to  present  his  view 
irresistibly.  Perhaps  he  was  not  clear ;  it  was  a  piece  of 
skiamachy,  difficult  to  render  clear  to  the  defeated. 

Lord  Fleetwood  had  nothing  to  say  but  "  Gorgon !  a 
girl  a  Gorgon ! "  and  it  struck  AVoodseer  as  intensely 
unreasonable,  considering  that  he  had  seen  the  girl 
whom,  in  his  effort  to  portray  her,  he  had  likened  to 
a  beautiful  Gorgon.  He  recounted  the  scene  of  the 
meeting  with  her,  pictured  it  in  effective  colours,  but 
his  companion  gave  no  response,  nor  a  nod.  They 
ceased  to  converse,  and  when  the  young  lord's  hired 
carriage  drew  up  on  the  road,  Woodseer  required  persua- 
sion to  accompany  him.  They  were  both  in  their  differ- 
ent stations  young  tyrants  of  the  world,  ready  to  fight  the 
world  and  one  another  for  not  having  their  immediate 
view  of  it  such  as  they  wanted  it.  They  agreed,  how- 
ever, not  to  sleep  in  the  city.  Beds  were  to  be  had 
near  the  top  of  a  mountain  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Salza,  their  driver  informed   them,  and   vowing  them- 


ENCOUNTER  OF  TWO  STRANGE  YOUNG  MEN   103 

selves  to  that  particular  height,  in  a  mutual  disgust  of  s<; 
the  city,  they  waxed  friendlier. 

Woodseer  soon  had  experience  that  he  was  receiv- 
ing exceptional  treatment  from  Lord  Fleetwood,  whose 
man-servant  was  on  the  steps  of  the  hotel  in  Salzburg 
on  the  lookout  for  his  master. 

"Sir  Meeson  has  been  getting  impatient,  my  lord," 
said  the   man. 

Sir  Meeson  Corby  appeared;  Lord  Fleetwood  cut 
him  short :  "  You're  in  a  hurry ;  go  at  once,  don't  wait 
for  me  ;  I  join  you  in  Baden.  —  Do  me  the  favour  to  eat 
with  me,"  he  turned  to  Woodseer.  "  And  here,  Corby ! 
tell  the  countess  I  have  a  friend  to  bear  me  company, 
aud  there  is  to  be  an  extra  bedroom  secured  at  her 
hotel.  That  swinery  of  a  place  she  insists  on  visiting 
is  usually  crammed.  With  you  there,"  he  turned  to 
Woodseer,  "  I  might  find  it  agreeable.  —  You  can  take 
my  man,  Corby ;  I  shall  not  want  the  fellow." 

"Positively,  my  dear  Fleetwood,  you  know,"  Sir 
Meeson  expostulated,  "  I  am  under  orders ;  I  don't  see 
how  —  I  really  can't  go  on  without  you." 

"Please  yourself.  This  gentleman  is  my  friend,  Mr. 
Woodseer." 

Sir  Meeson  Corby  was  a  plump  little  beau  of  forty, 
at  war  with  his  fat  and  accounting  his  tight  blue  tail 
coat  and  brass  buttons  a  victory.  His  tightness  made 
his  fatness  elastic;  he  looked  wound  up  for  a  dance, 
and  could  hardly  hold  on  a  leg ;  but  the  presentation  of 


104  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

a  creature  in  a  battered  hat  and  soiled  garments,  carry- 
ing a  tattered  knapsack  half  slung,  lank  and  with  disor- 
derly locks,  as  the  Earl  of  Fleetwood's  friend  —  the 
friend  of  the  wealthiest  nobleman  of  Great  Britain !  — 
fixed  him  in  a  perked  attitude  of  inquiry  that  ex- 
hausted interrogatives.  Woodseer  passed  him,  slouching 
a  bow.  The  circular  stare  of  Sir  Meeson  seemed  unable 
to  contract.  He  directed  it  on  Lord  Fleetwood,  and 
was  then  reminded  that  he  dealt  with  prickles. 

"  Where  have  you  been  ?  "  he  said,  blinking  to  refresh 
his  eyeballs.  "  I  missed  you,  I  ran  roimd  and  round  the 
town  after  you." 

"  I  have  been  to  the  lake." 

'^ Queer  fish  there!"  Sir  Meeson  dropped  a  glance 
on  the  capture. 

Lord  Fleetwood  took  Woodseer's  arm.  "  Do  you  eat 
with  us  ?  "  he  asked  the  baronet,  who  had  stayed  his  eat- 
ing for  an  hour  and  was  famished ;  so  they  strode  to  the 
dining-room. 

"  Do  you  wash,  sir,  before  eating  ?  "  Sir  Meeson  said 
to  Woodseer,  caressing  his  hands  when  they  had  seated 
themselves  at  table.  "Appliances  are  to  be  found  in 
this  hotel." 

"  Soap  ?  "  said  Lord  Fleetwood. 

"Soap  —  at  least,  in  my  chamber." 

"  Fetch  it,  please." 

Sir  Meeson,  of  course,  could  not  hear  that.  He  re- 
quested the  waiter  to  show  the  gentleman  to  a  room. 


ENCOUNTER   OF   TWO   STRANGE   YOUNG  MEN      105 

Lord  Fleetwood  ordered  the  waiter  to  bring  a  hand- 
basin  and  towel.  "We're  off  directly  and  must  eat  at 
once,"  he  said. 

"  Soap  —  soap !  my  dear  Fleetwood,"  Sir  Meeson 
knuckled  on  the  table,  to  impress  it  that  his  appetite 
and  his  gorge  demanded  a  thorough  cleansing  of  those 
fingers,  if  they  were  to  sit  at  one  board. 

"  Let  the  waiter  fetch  it." 

"The  soap  is  in  my  pcjitmaaiteaAi." 

"  You  spoke  of  it  as  a  necessity  for  this  gentleman  and 
me.     Bring  it." 

Woodseer  had  risen.  Lord  Fleetwood  motioned  him 
down.  He  kept  an  eye  dead  as  marble  on  Corby,  who 
muttered :  "  You  can't  mean  that  you  ask  me  ?  .  .  ." 
But  the  alternative  was  forced  on  Sir  Meeson  by  too 
strong  a  power  of  the  implacable  eye ;  there  was  thun- 
der in  it,  a  continuity  of  gaze  forcefuller  than  repetitions 
of  the  word.  He  knew  Lord  Fleetwood.  Men  privi- 
leged to  attend  on  him  were  dogs  to  the  flinty  young 
despot :  they  were  sure  to  be  called  upon  to  expiate  the 
faintest  offence  to  him.  He  had  hastily  to  consider,  that 
he  was  banished  beyond  appeal,  with  the  whole  torture 
of  banishment  to  an  adorer  of  the  Countess  Livia,  or 
else  the  mad  behest  must  be  obeyed.  He  protested, 
shrugged,  sat  fast,  and  sprang  up,  remarking,  that  he 
went  with  all  the  willingness  imaginable.  It  could  not 
have  been  the  first  occasion. 

He  was  affecting  the  excessively  obsequious  when  he 


106  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

came  back  bearing  his  metal  soap-case.  The  perform- 
ance was  checked  by  another  look  solid  as  shot,  and  as 
qnick.  Woodseer,  who  would  have  done  for  Sir  Meeson 
Corby  or  Lazarus  what  had  been  done  for  him,  thought 
little  of  the  service,  but  so  intense  a  peremptoriness  in 
the  look  of  an  eye  made  him  uncomfortable  in  his  own 
sense  of  independence.  The  humblest  citizen  of  a  free 
nation  has  that  warning  at  some  notable  exhibition  of 
tyranny  in  a  neighbouring  State :  it  acts  like  a  concussion 
of  the  air. 

Lord  Fleetwood  led  an  easy  dialogue  with  him  and 
Sir  Meeson,  on  their  different  themes  immediately,  which 
was  not  less  impressive  to  an  observer.  He  listened  to 
Sir  Meeson's  entreaties  that  he  should  start  at  once  for 
Baden,  and  appeared  to  pity  the  poor  gentleman,  con- 
demned by  his  oifice  to  hang  about  him  in  terror  of  his 
liege  lady's  displeasure.  Presently,  near  the  close  of  the 
meal,  drawing  a  ring  from  his  finger,  he  handed  it  to  the 
baronet,  and  said,  "Give  her  that.  She  knows  I  shall 
follow  that."  He  added  to  himself :  —  I  shall  have  ill- 
luck  till  I  have  it  back  !  and  he  asked  Woodseer  whether 
he  put  faith  in  the  virtue  of  talismans. 

"I  have  never  possessed  one,"  said  Woodseer,  with 
his  natural  frankness.  "It  would  have  gone  long  be- 
fore this  for  a  night's  lodging." 

Sir  Meeson  heard  him,  and  instantly  urged  Lord 
Fleetwood  not  to  think  of  dismissing  his  man  Francis. 
"  I   beg  it,  Fleetwood !     I   beg  you  to  take  the  man. 


ENCOUNTER   OF  TWO   STRANGE  YOUNG   MEN      107 

Her  ladyship  will  receive  me  badly,  ring  or  no  ring, 
if  she  hears  of  your  being  left  alone.  I  really  can't 
present  mj^self.     I  shall  not  go,  not  go.     I  say  no." 

"  Stay,  then, "  said  Fleetwood. 

He  turned  to  Woodseer  with  an  air  of  deference, 
and  requested  the  privilege  of  glancing  at  his  note- 
book again,  and  scanned  it  closely  at  one  of  the 
pages.  "I  believe  it  true,"  he  cried;  "I  had  a  half 
recollection  of  it  —  I  have  had  some  such  thought, 
but  never  could  put  it  in  words.  You  have  thought 
deeply." 

"That  is  only  a  surface  thought,  or  common  reflec- 
tion," said  Woodseer. 

Sir  Meeson  stared  at  them  in  turn.  Judging  by 
their  talk  and  the  effect  produced  on  the  earl,  he  took 
Woodseer  for  a  sort  of  conjuror. 

It  was  his  duty  to  utter  a  warning. 

He  drew  Fleetwood  aside.  A  word  was  whispered, 
and  they  broke  asunder  with  a  snax^.  Francis  was 
called.  His  master  gave  him  his  keys,  and  despatched 
him  into  the  town  to  purchase  a  knapsack  or  bag  for 
the  outfit  of  a  jolly  beggar.  The  prospect  delighted 
Lord  Fleetwood.  He  sang  notes  from  the  deep  chest, 
flaunting  like  an  opera  brigand,  and  contemplating  his 
wretched  satellite's  indecision  with  brimming  amuse- 
ment. 

"Eemember,  we  fight  for  our  money.  I  carry 
mine,"  he  said  to  Woodseer. 


108  THE  AMAZING  MAERIAGE 

"Wouldn't  it  be  expedient,  Fleetwood  .  .  ."  Sir 
Meeson  suggested  a  treasurer  in  the  person  of  himself. 

"Not  a  florin,  Corby!  I  should  find  it  all  gambled 
away  at  Baden." 

"But  I  am  not  Abrane,  I'm  not  Abrane!  I  never 
play,  I  have  no  mania,  none.  It  would  be  prudent, 
Fleetwood." 

"The  slightest  bulging  of  a  pocket  Avould  show  on 
you,  Corby;  and  they  Avould  be  at  you,  they  would 
fall  on  you  and  pluck  you  to  have  another  fling.  I'd 
rather  my  money  should  go  to  a  knight  of  the  road 
than  feed  that  dragon's  jaw.  A  highwayman  seems 
an  honest  fellow  compared  with  your  honourable  cor- 
poration of  fly-catchers.  I  could  surrender  to  him 
with  some  satisfaction  after  a  trial  of  the  better  man. 
I've  tried  these  tables,  and  couldn't  stir  a  pulse.  Have 
you  ?  " 

It  had  to  be  explained  to  Woodseer  what  was 
meant  by  trying  the  tables.  "Not  I,"  said  he,  in 
strong  contempt  of  the  queer  allurement. 

Lord  Fleetwood  studied  him  half  a  minute,  as  if 
measuring  and  discarding  a  suspicion  of  the  young 
philosopher's  possible  weakness  under  temptation. 

Sir  Meeson  Corby  accompanied  the  oddly  assorted 
couple  through  the  toAvn  and  a  short  way  along  the 
road  to  the  mountain,  for  the  sake  of  quieting  his  con- 
science upon  the  subject  of  his  leaving  them  together. 
He  could  not  have  sat  down  a  second  time  at  a  table 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       109 

icith  those  hands.  He  said  it :  —  he  could  not  have 
done  the  thing.  So  the  best  he  could  do  was  to  let 
them  go.  Like  many  of  his  class,  he  had  a  mind 
open  to  the  effect  of  striking  contrasts,  and  the  spec- 
tacle of  the  wealthiest  nobleman  in  Great  Britain 
tramping  the  road,  pack  on  back,  with  a  young  nobody 
for  his  comrade,  a  total  stranger,  who  might  be  a  cut- 
throat, and  was  avowedly  next  to  a  mendicant,  charged 
him  with  quantities  of  inter jectory  matter,  that  he 
caught  himself  firing  to  the  foreign  people  on  the 
highway.  Hundreds  of  thousands  a  year,  and  tramp- 
ing it  like  a  pedlar,  with  a  beggar  for  his  friend! 
He  would  have  given  something  to  have  an  English 
ear  near  him  as  he  watched  them  rounding  under  the 
mountain  they  were  about  to  climb. 


CHAPTER   IX 


CONCERNING  THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE  AND  THE 
WORSHIP  OF  HER,  TOGETHER  WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION 
OF    SOME    OF    HER   VOTARIES 

In  those  early  days  of  Fortune's  pregnant  alternations 
of  colour  between  the  Red  and  the  Black,  exhibited  pub- 
licly, as  it  were  a  petroleum  spring  of  the  ebony-fiery 
lake  below,  Black-Forest  Baden  was  the  sprightliest  of 
the  ante-chambers  of  Hades.     Thither  in  the  ripeness  of 


110  THE  AMAZING  MABBIAGE 

the  year  trooped  tlie  devotees  of  the  sable  goddess  to 
perform  sacrifice ;  and  annually  among  them  the  beauti- 
ful Livia,  the  Countess  of  Fleetwood ;  for  nowhere  else 
had  she  sensation  of  the  perfect  repose  which  is  rocked 
to  a  slumber  by  gales. 

She  was  not  of  the  creatures  who  are  excited  by  an 
atmosphere  of  excitement;  she  took  it  as  the  nj^mph  of 
the  stream  her  native  wave,  and  swam  on  the  flood  with 
expansive  languor,  happy  to  have  the  master  passions 
about  her;  one  or  two  of  which  her  dainty  hand  ca- 
ressed, fearless  of  a  sting ;  the  lady  petted  them  as  her 
swans.  It  surprised  her  to  a  gentle  contempt  of  men 
and  women,  that  they  should  be  rufB.ed  either  by  love  or 
play.  A  withholding  from  the  scene  will  naturally  arouse 
disturbing  wishes ;  but  to  be  present  lulls ;  for  then  we 
live,  we  are  in  our  element.  And  who  could  expect, 
what  sane  person  can  desire,  perpetual  good  luck  ?  For- 
tune, the  goddess,  and  young  Love,  too,  are  divine  in 
their  mutability:  and  Fortune  would  resemble  a  hum- 
drum housewife.  Love  a  droning  husband,  if  constancy 
were  practised  by  them.  Observe  the  staggering  and 
plunging  of  the  blindfold  wretch  seeking  to  be  per- 
suaded of  their  faithfulness. 

She  could  make  for  herself  a  quiet  centre  in  the  heart 
of  the  whirlwind,  but  the  whirlwind  was  required.  The 
clustered  lights  at  the  corner  of  the  vale  under  forest 
hills,  the  bursts  of  music,  the  blazing  windows  of  the 
saloons  of  the  Furies,  and  the  gamblers  advancing  and 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       111 

retreating,  witli  their  totally  opposite  views  of  conse- 
quences, and  fashions  of  wearing  or  tearing  the  mask; 
and  closer,  the  figures  shifting  up  and  down  the  prom- 
enade, known  and  unknown  faces,  and  the  histories 
half  known,  half  woven,  weaving  fast,  which  flew  their 
threads  to  provoke  speculation;  pleasantly  embraced 
and  diverted  the  cool-blooded  lady  surrounded  by  her 
courtiers,  who  could  upon  occasion  supply  the  lumi- 
nous clue  or  anecdote.  She  had  an  intuitive  liveliness 
to  detect  interchanges  of  eyes,  the  shuttle  of  intrigue; 
the  mild  hypocrisy,  the  clever  audacity,  the  suspicion 
confirmed,  the  complication  threatening  to  become  reso- 
nant and  terrible;  and  the  old  crossing  the  young  and 
the  young  outwitting  the  old,  wiles  of  fair  traitors 
and  dark,  knaves  of  all  suits  of  the  pack.  A  more 
intimate  acquaintance  with  their  lineaments  inspired 
a  regard  for  them,  such  as  poets  may  feign  the  throned 
high  moon  to  entertain  for  objects  causing  her  rays  to 
flash. 

The  simple  fools,  performing  in  character,  were  a 
neutral  people,  grotesques  and  arabesques  wreathed 
about  the  margins  of  the  scene.  Venus  or  Fortune 
smote  them  to  a  relievo  distinguishing  one  from  another. 
Here,  however,  as  elsewhere,  the  core  of  interest  was 
with  the  serious  population,  the  lovers  and  the  players 
in  earnest,  Avho  stood  round  the  furnace  and  pitched 
themselves  into  it,  not  always  under  a  miscalculation 
of  their   chances   of   emerging  transfigured  instead  of 


112  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

serving  for  fuel.  These,  the  tragical  children  of  folly, 
were  astute :  they  played  with  lightning,  and  they  knew 
the  conditions  of  the  game;  victories  were  to  be  had. 

The  ulterior  conditions  of  the  game,  the  price  paid  for 
a  victory,  they  thought  little  of :  for  they  were  feverish 
worshippers  of  the  phantasmal  deity  called  the  Present ; 
a  god  reigning  over  the  Past,  appreciable  only  in  the 
Future ;  whose  whiff  of  actual  being  is  composed  of  the 
embryo  idea  of  the  union  of  these  two  periods.  Still 
he  is  occasionally  a  benevolent  god  to  the  appetites ; 
which  have  but  to  be  continuous  to  establish  him  in 
permanence ;  and  as  nothing  in  us  more  readily  supposes 
perpetuity  than  the  appetite  rushing  to  destroy  itself, 
the  rational  nature  of  the  most  universal  worship  on 
earth  is  perceived  at  once. 

oSTow  the  price  paid  for  a  victory  is  this :  that  having 
been  favoured  in  a  single  instance  by  the  spouse  of  the 
aforesaid  eminent  divinity  —  the  Black  Goddess  of  the 
golden  fringes  —  men  believe  in  her  forever  after,  behold 
her  everywhere,  they  belong  to  her.  Their  faith  as  to 
sowing  and  reaping  has  gone ;  and  so  has  their  capacity 
to  see  the  actual  as  it  is;  she  has  the  power  to  attach 
them  to  her  skirts  the  more  by  rewarding  their  impas- 
sioned devotion  with  cuffs  and  scorns.  They  have 
ceased  to  have  a  first  notion  upon  anything  without  a 
second  haunting  it,  which  directs  them  to  propitiate 
Fortune. 

But  I  am  reminded  by  the  convulsions  of  Dame  Gos- 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       113 

sip,  that  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors  makes  it  a  mere 
hammering  of  commonplace  to  insist  on  such  reflections. 
Many  of  them,  indeed,  took  the  union  of  the  Black  God- 
dess and  the  Kosy  Present  for  the  composition  of  the 
very  Arch-Fiend.  Some  had  a  shot  at  the  strange  con- 
jecture, figuring  her  as  tired  of  men  in  the  end  and 
challenging  him  below  —  equally  tired  of  his  easy  con- 
quests of  men  since  the  glorious  old  times  of  the  duel- 
ling saints.  By  virtue  of  his  one  incorrigible  weakness, 
which  we  know  him  to  have  as  long  as  we  have  it  our- 
selves :  viz.,  the  belief  in  her  existence ;  she  is  to  get  the 
better  of  him. 

Upon  this  point  the  experience  of  Captain  Abrane  has 
a  value.  Livia  was  a  follower  of  the  Eed  and  Black, 
and  the  rounding  ball  in  the  person  of  the  giant  captain, 
through  whom  she  received  her  succession  of  sweetly 
teasing  thrills  and  shocks,  as  one  of  the  adventurous 
company  they  formed  together.  The  place  was  known 
to  him  as  the  fair  Philistine  to  another  muscular  hero ; 
he  had  been  shorn  there  before,  and  sent  forth  tottering, 
treating  the  friends  he  met  as  pillars  to  fall  with  him ; 
and  when  the  operation  was  done  thoroughly,  he  pro- 
nounced himself  refreshed  by  it,  like  a  more  sensible 
Samson,  the  cooler  for  his  clipping.  Then  it  was  that  he 
relapsed  undistractedly  upon  processes  of  his  mind :  and 
he  often  said  he  thought  Fortune  would  beat  the  devil. 

Her  power  is  shown  in  the  moving  of  her  solicitors 
to  think,  instantly  after  they  have  made  their  cast,  that 


114  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

tlie  reverse  of  it  was  what  they  intended.  It  conies  as 
though  she  had  withdrawn  the  bandage  from  her  fore- 
head and  dropped  a  leaden  glance  on  them,  like  a  great 
dame  angry  to  have  her  signal  misinterpreted.  Well, 
then,  distinguished  by  the  goddess  in  such  a  manner,  we 
have  it  proved  to  us  how  she  wished  to  favour :  for  the 
reverse  wins,  and  we  who  are  pinched  blame  not  her 
cruelty  but  oui-  blind  folly.  This  is  true  worship. 
Henceforth  the  pain  of  her  nip  is  mingled  with  the 
dream  of  her  kiss :  between  the  positive  and  the  imag- 
ined of  her  we  remain  confused  until  the  purse  is  an 
empty  body  on  a  gallows,  honour  too,  perhaps. 

Captain  Abrane  was  one  of  the  Countess  Livia's 
numerous  courtiers  on  the  border  of  the  promenade 
under  the  lighted  saloons.  A  colossus  inactive,  he  had 
little  to  say  among  the  chattering  circle;  for  when 
seated,  cards  were  wanted  to  animate  him:  and  he 
\  looked  entirely  out  of  place  and  unfitted,  like  a  great 
j  vessel's  figure-head  in  a  shipwright's  yard. 

She  murmured :  "  Not  this  evening  ?  " 

Abrane  quoted  promptly  a  line  of  nursery  song: 
"  How  shall  he  cut  it  without  e'er  a  knife  ?  " 

*^  Have  we  rim  it  down  so  low !  "  said  she,  with  no 
reproach  in  her  tone. 

The  captain  shrugged  over  his  clean  abyss,  where 
nothing  was. 

Yesterday  their  bank  presented  matronly  propor- 
tions.    But  an  importuned   goddess   reduces   the  most 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       115 

voluminous  to  bare  stitches  within  a  few  ^vinks  of  an 
eye. 

Livia  turned  to  a  French  gentleman  of  her  court, 
M.  de  St.  Ombre,  and  pursued  a  conversation.  He 
was  a  stately  cavalier,  of  the  Gallicised  Prankish  out- 
lines, ready,  but  grave  in  his  bearing,  grave  in  his  de- 
livery, trimly  moustached,  with  a  Guise  beard. 

His  profound  internal  question  relating  to  this  un- 
English  beauty  of  the  British  Isles :  —  had  she  no 
passion  in  her  nature  ?  was  not  convinced  by  her  ap- 
parent insensibility  to  Fortune's  whips. 

Sir  Meeson  Corby  inserted  a  word  of  Bull  French  out 
of  place  from  time  to  time. 

As  it  might  be  necessary  to  lean  on  the  little  man 
for  weapons  of  war,  supposing  Lord  Fleetwood  delayed 
his  arrival  yet  another  day,  Livia  was  indulgent.  She 
assisted  him  to  think  that  he  spoke  the  foreign 
tongue. 

Mention  of  Lord  Fleetwood  set  Sir  Meeson  harping 
again  on  his  alarms,  in  consideration  of  the  vagabond 
object  the  young  lord  had  roamed  away  with. 

"  You  forget  that  Russett  has  gypsy  in  him  :  Welsh  ! 
it's  about  the  same,"  said  Livia.  "He  can  take  excel- 
lent care  of  himself  and  his  purse." 

"Countess,  he  is  a  good  six  days  overdue." 

"He  will  be  in  time  for  the  ball  at  the  Schloss." 

Sir  Meeson  Corby  produced  an  aspect  of  the  word 
"if,"   so   perkily,   that    the    dejected   Captain    Abrane 


116  THE  AMAZING  MARKIAGE 

laughed  outright  and  gave  him  double  reason  to  fret 
for  Lord  Fleetwood's  arrival,  by  saying :  ^'  If  he  hangs 
off  much  longer,  I  shall  have  to  come  on  you  for 
another  fifty." 

Our  two  pedestrians  out  of  Salzburg  were  standing 
up  in  the  night  of  cloud  and  pines  above  the  glittering 
pool,  having  made  their  way  along  the  path  from  the 
hill  anciently  dedicated  to  the  god  Mercury ;  and  at 
the  moment  when  Sir  Meeson  put  forth  his  frilled  wrists 
to  say:  *'If  you  had  seen  his  hands  —  the  creature 
Fleetwood  trotted  off  alone  with !  —  you'd  be  a  bit 
anxious  too " ;  the  young  lord  called  his  comrade  to 
gaze  underneath  them:  "There  they  are,  hard  at  it,  at 
their  play !  —  it's  the  word  used  for  the  filthiest  gutter 
scramble." 

They  had  come  to  know  something  of  one  another's 
humours ;  which  are  taken  by  young  men  for  their  char- 
acters ;  and  should  the  humours  please,  they  are  friends, 
until  further  humours  develop,  trying  these  nascent  con- 
servatives hard  to  suit  them  to  their  moods  as  well  as 
the  accustomed.  Lord  Fleetwood  had  discovered  in 
his  companion,  besides  the  spirit  of  independence  and 
the  powers  of  thought  impressed  on  him  by  Woodseer's 
precocious  flashes,  a  broad  playfulness,  that  trenched 
on  buffoonery;  it  astonished,  amused,  and  relieved  him, 
loosening  the  spell  of  reverence  cast  over  him  by  one 
who  could  so  wonderfully  illumine  his  brain.  Prone 
to  admire   and   bend  the  knee  where   he   admired,  he 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       117 

chafed  at  subjection,  unless  lie  had  the  particular  spell 
constantly  renewed.  A  tone  in  him  once  or  twice  of 
late,  different  from  the  comrade's,  had  warned  Woodseer 
to  be  guarded. 

Susceptible,  however,  of  the  extreme  contrast  between 
the  gamblers  below  and  Nature's  lover  beside  him, 
Fleetwood  retm-ned  to  his  enthusiasm  without  think- 
ing it  a  bondage. 

"I  shall  never  forget  the  walk  we've  had.  I  have 
to  thank  you  for  the  noblest  of  pleasures.  You've 
taught  me  —  well,  a  thousand  things ;  the  things 
money  can't  buy.  What  mornings  they  were!  And 
the  dead-tired  nights !  Under  the  rock  and  up  to  see 
the  snowy  peak  pink  in  a  gap  of  thick  mist.  You 
were  right :  it  made  a  crimsoning  colour  shine  like  a  new 
idea.  Up  in  those  mountains  one  walks  with  the  divini- 
ties, you  said.  It's  perfectly  true.  I  shall  remember 
I  did.  I  have  a  treasure  for  life !  'Now  I  understand 
where  you  get  your  ideas.  The  life  we  lead  down 
there  is  hoggish.  You  have  chosen  the  right.  You're 
right,  over  and  over  again,  when  you  say,  the  dirty 
sweaters  are  nearer  the  angels  for  cleanliness,  than  my 
Lord. and  Lady  Sybarite  out  of  a  bath,  in  chemical  scents. 
A  man  who  thinks,  loathes  their  High  Society.  I  went 
through  Juvenal  at  college.  But  you  —  to  be  sure,  you 
add  example  —  make  me  feel  the  contempt  of  it  more. 
I  am  everlastingly  indebted  to  you.  Yes,  I  won't  forget : 
you  preach  against  the  despising  of  anything." 


118  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Now  this  was  pleasant  in  Woodseer's  ears,  inasmuch 
as  it  established  the  young  nobleman  as  the  pupil  of 
his  philosophy  for  the  conduct  of  life;  and  to  fortify 
him,  he  replied:  — 

"Set  your  mind  on  the  beauty,  and  there'll  be  no 
room  for  comparisons.  Most  of  them  are  unjust,  pre- 
cious few  instructive.  In  this  case,  they  spoil  both 
pictures :  and  that  scene  down  there  rather  hooks  me ; 
though  I  prefer  the  Dachstein  in  the  wane  of  the  after- 
glow.    You  called  it  Carinthia." 

"I  did:  the  beautiful  Gorgon,  haggard  Venus  —  if 
she  is  to  be  a  girl !  "  Fleetwood  rejoined.  "  She  looked 
burnt  out  —  a  spectre." 

"One  of  the  admirably  damned,''  said  Woodseer,  and 
he  murmured  with  enjoyment:  "Between  the  lights  — 
that's  the  beauty  and  the  tragedy  of  Purgatory ! " 

His  comrade  fell  in  with  the  pictured  idea:  "You 
hit  it :  —  not  what  you  called  the  ^  sublimely  milky,' 
and  not  squalid,  as  you'll  see  the  faces  of  the  gam- 
bling women  at  the  tables  below.  Oblige  me  —  may  I 
beg  ?  —  don't  clap  names  on  the  mountains  we've  seen. 
It  stamps  guide-book  on  them,  English  tourist,  horrors. 
We'll  moralize  over  the  crowds  at  the  tables  down 
there.  On  the  whole,  it's  a  fairish  game:  you  know 
the  odds  against  you,  as  you  don't  on  the  Turf  or 
the  Bourse.  Have  your  fling;  but  don't  get  bitten. 
There's  a  virus.     I'm  not  open  to  it.     Others  are." 

Hereupon  Woodseer,  wishing  to  have  his  individual- 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       119 

ity  recognized  in  the  universality  it  consented  to, 
remarked  on  an  exchequer  that  could  not  afford  to 
lose,  and  a  disposition  free  of  the  craving  to  win. 

These  were,  no  doubt,  good  reasons  for  abstaining, 
and  they  were  grand  morality.  They  were,  at  the 
same  time,  customary  phrases  of  the  unfleshed  in  folly. 
They  struck  Fleetwood  with  a  curious  reminder  of  the 
puking  inexperienced,  whom  he  had  seen  subsequently 
plunge  suicidally.  He  had  a  sharp  vision  of  the 
attractive  forces  of  the  game;  and  his  elemental  nat- 
ure exulted  in  siding  with  the  stronger  against  a  pre- 
tender to  the  superhuman.  For  Woodseer  had  spoken 
a  trifle  loftily,  as  quite  above  temptation.  To  see  a 
forewarned  philosopher  lured  to  try  the  swim  on  those 
tides,  pulled  along  the  current,  and  caught  by  the 
undertug  of  the  lasher,  would  be  fun. 

"We'll  drop  down  on  them,  find  our  hotel,  and  have 
a  look  at  what  they're  doing,"  he  said,  and  stepped. 

Woodseer  would  gladly  have  remained.  The  starlit 
black  ridges  about  him  and  the  dragon's  mouth  yawning 
underneath  were  an  opposition  of  spiritual  and  mundane ; 
innocent,  noxious ;  exciting  to  the  youthful  philosopher. 
He  had  to  follow,  and  so  rapidly  in  the  darkness  that  he 
stumbled  and  fell  on  an  arm ;  a  small  matter. 

Bed-chambers  awaited  them  at  the  hotel,  none  of 
the  party:  and  Fleetwood's  man-servant  was  absent: 
"  Gambling,  the  rascal !  "  he  said.  Woodseer  heard  the 
first  note  of  the  place  in  that. 


120  THE  AMAZING  MABEIAGE 

His  leader  was  washedj  neatly  dressed,  and  knocking 
at  his  door  very  soon,  impatient  to  be  off,  and  lie  flung 
a  promise  of  "  supper  presently  "  to  one  whose  modest 
purse  had  fallen  into  a  debate  with  this  lordly  hostelry, 
counting  that  a  supper  and  a  night  there  would  do  for 
it.  They  hurried  on  to  the  line  of  promenaders,  a  river 
of  cross-currents  by  the  side  of  seated  groups ;  and  the 
willowy  swish  of  silken  dresses,  feminine  perfumery, 
cigar-smoke,  chatter,  laughter,  told  of  pleasure  reigning. 

Fleetwood  scanned  the  groups.  He  had  seen  enough 
in  a  moment  and  his  face  blackened.  A  darting 
waiter  was  called  to  him. 

He  said  to  Woodseer,  savagely,  as  it  sounded :  "  You 
shall  have  something  to  joint  your  bones!"  What 
cause  of  wrath  he  had  was  past  a  guess  :  a  wolf  at  his 
vitals  bit  him,  hardening  his  handsome  features. 

The  waiter  darted  back,  bearing  a  tray  and  tall  glasses 
filled  each  with  piled  parti-coloured  liquors,  on  the  top 
of  which  an  egg-yolk  swam.  Fleetwood  gave  example. 
Swallowing  your  egg,  the  fiery-velvet  triune  behind 
slips  after  it,  in  an  easy  milky  way,  like  a  princess's 
train  on  a  state-march,  and  you  are  completely  trans- 
formed, very  agreeably ;  you  have  become  a  merry  de- 
mon. ^^Well,  yes,  it's  next  to  magic,"  he  replied  to 
Woodseer's  astonished  snigger  after  the  draught,  and 
explained,  that  it  was  famous  Viennese  four-of-the- 
morning  panacea,  the  revellers'  electrical  restorer. 
"Now  you  can  hold  on  for  an  hour  or  two,  and  then 
we'll  sup.     At  Kome  ?  " 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       121 

"  Ay  !  Druids  to-morrow  ! "  cried  the  philosopher 
bewitched. 

He  found  himself  bowing  to  a  most  heavenly  lady, 
composed  of  day  and  night  in  her  colouring,  but  more  of 
night,  where  the  western  edge  has  become  a  pale  steel 
blade.  Men  were  around  her,  forming  a  semi-circle. 
The  world  of  men  and  women  was  mere  timber  and 
leafage  to  this  flower  of  her  sex,  glory  of  her  kind. 
How  he  behaved  in  her  presence,  he  knew  not ;  he  was 
beyond  self-criticism  or  conscious  reflection  ;  simply  the 
engine  of  the  commixed  three  liquors,  with  parlous 
fine  thoughts,  and  a  sense  of  steaming  into  the  infinite. 

To  leave  her  was  to  have  her  as  a  moon  in  the  heavens 
and  to  think  of  her  creatively.  A  swarm  of  images 
rushed  about  her  and  away,  took  lustre  and  shade.  She 
was  a  miracle  of  greyness,  her  eyes  translucently  grey, 
a  dark-haired  queen  of  the  twilights ;  and  his  heart 
sprang  into  his  brain  to  picture  the  novel  beauty ;  lan- 
guage became  a  flushed  Bacchanal  in  a  ring  of  dancing 
similes.  Lying  beside  a  bank  of  silvery  cinquefoil 
against  a  clear  evening  sky,  where  the  planet  Venus  is 
a  point  of  new  and  warmer  light,  one  has  the  vision  of 
her.  Or  something  of  Persephone  rising  to  greet  her 
mother,  when  our  beam  of  day  first  melts  through  her  as 
she  kneels  to  gather  an  early  bud  of  the  year,  would  be 
near  it.  Or  there  is  a  lake  in  mid-forest,  that  curls  part 
in  shadow  under  the  foot  of  morning :  there  we  have 
her. 


122  THE   AMAZING  MABRIAGE 

He  strained  to  the  earthly  and  the  skyey  likenesses  of 
his  marvel  of  human  beauty  because  they  bestowed  her 
on  him  in  passing.  All  the  while,  he  was  gazing  on  a 
green  gaming-table. 

The  gold  glittered,  and  it  heaped  or  it  vanished.  Con- 
temptuous of  money,  beyond  the  limited  sum  for  his 
needs,  he  gazed ;  imagination  was  blunted  in  him  to  the 
hot  drama  of  the  business.  Moreover  his  mind  was 
engaged  in  insisting  that  the  Evening  Star  is  not  to 
be  called  Venus,  because  of  certain  stories;  and  he 
was  vowed  to  defend  his  lady  from  any  allusion  to 
them.  This  occupied  him.  By  degrees,  the  visible 
asserted  its  authority;  his  look  on  the  coin  fell  to 
speculating.  Oddly,  too,  he  was  often  right ;  —  the 
money,  staked  on  the  other  side,  would  have  won. 
He  considered  it  rather  a  plain  calculation  than  a 
guess. 

Philosophy  withdrew  him  from  his  temporary  interest 
in  the  tricks  of  a  circling  white  marble  ball.  The  chuck- 
farthing  of  street  urchins  has  quite  as  much  dignity. 
He  compared  the  creatures  dabbling  over  the  board  to 
summer  flies  on  butcher's  meat,  periodically  scared  by 
a  cloth.  More  in  the  abstract,  they  were  snatching  at  a 
snapdragon  bowl.  It  struck  him,  that  the  gamblers  had 
thronged  on  an  invitation  to  drink  the  round  of  seed- 
time and  harvest  in  a  gulp.  Again  they  were  desperate 
gleaners,  hopping,  skipping,  bleeding,  amid  a  whizz  of 
scythe-blades,  for   small   wisps   of  booty.     Nor  was   it 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       123 

long  before  the  presidency  of  an  ancient  hoary  Goat- 
Satan  might  be  perceived,  with  skew-eyes  and  pucker- 
mouth,  nursing  a  hoof  on  a  knee. 

Our  mediseval  Enemy  sat  symbolical  in  his  deform- 
ities, as  in  old  Italian  and  Dutch  thick-line  engravings 
of  him.  He  rolled  a  ball  for  souls,  excited  like  kittens, 
to  catch  it,  and  tumbling  into  the  dozens  of  vacant  pits. 
So  it  seemed  to  Woodseer,  whose  perceptions  were 
discoloured  by  hereditary  antagonism.  Had  he  pre- 
served his  philosopher's  eye,  he  would  have  known 
that  the  Hoofed  One  is  too  wily  to  show  himself,  owing 
to  his  ugliness.  The  Black  Goddess  and  no  other  pre- 
sides at  her  own  game.  She  (it  is  good  for  us  to  know 
it)  is  the  Power  who  challenges  the  individual,  it  is  he 
who  spreads  the  net  for  the  mass.  She  liquefies  the 
brain  of  man;  he  petrifies  or  ossifies  the  heart.  From 
her  comes  craziness,  from  him  perversity :  a  more  pro- 
vocative and,  on  the  whole,  more  contagious  disease. 
The  gambler  does  not  seek  to  lead  his  fellows  into  per- 
dition; the  snared  of  the  Demon  have  i^leasure  in  the 
act.  Hence  our  naturally  interested  forecasts  of  the 
contest  between  them :  for  if  he  is  beaten,  as  all  must 
be  at  the  close  of  an  extended  game  with  her,  we  have 
only  to  harden  the  brain  against  her  allurements  and 
we  enter  a  clearer  field. 

Woodseer  said  to  Fleetwood;  "That  ball  has  a  look 
of  a  nymph  running  round  and  round  till  she  changes 
to  one  of  the  Fates." 


124  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"  We'll  have  a  run  with  her/'  said  Fleetwood,  keener 
for  business  thaai  for  metaphors  at  the  moment. 

He  received  gold  for  a  bank-note.  Captain  Abrane 
hurriedly  begged  a  loan.  Both  of  them  threw.  Neither 
of  them  threw  on  the  six  numbers  Woodseer  would  have 
selected,  and  they  lost.  He  stated  that  the  number  of 
17  had  won  before.  Abrane  tried  the  transversal  en- 
closing this  favoured  -number.  "  Of  course  !  "  he  cried, 
with  foul  resignation  and  a  hostile  glare:  the  ball  had 
seated  itself  and  was  grinning  at  him  from  the  lowest 
of  the  stalls. 

Fleetwood  quitted  the  table-numbers  to  throw  on 
Pair;  he  won,  Avon  again,  pushed  his  luck  and  lost, 
dragging  Abrane  with  him.  The  giant  varied  his  tone 
of  acquiescence  in  Fortune's  whims :  "  Of  course !  I've 
only  to  fling !  Luck  hangs  right  enough  till  I  put  down 
my  stake." 

''  If  the  luck  has  gone  three  times,  the  chances  .  .  ." 
AVoodseer  was  rather  inquiring  than  pronouncing :  Lord 
Fleetwood  cut  him  short.  "The  chances  are  equally 
the  contrary ! "  and  discomposed  his  argumentative 
mind. 

As  argTiment  in  such  a  place  was  impossible,  he  had 
a  wild  idea  of  example  —  "just  to  see;"  and  though 
he  smiled,  his  brain  was  liquefying.  Upon  a  calcula- 
tion of  the  chances,  merely  for  the  humour  of  it,  he 
laid  a  silver  piece  on  the  first  six,  which  had  been  neg- 
lected.    T]iey  were   now  blest.     He  laid   his  winnings 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       125 

on  the  number  17.  Who  would  have  expected  it? 
why,  the  player,  surely !  Woodseer  comported  himself 
like  a  veteran:  he  had  proved  that  you  can  calculate 
the  chances.  Instead  of  turning  in  triumph  to  Lord 
Fleetwood,  he  laid  gold  pieces  to  hug  the  number  17, 
and  ten  in  the  centre.  And  it  is  the  truth,  he  hoped 
then  to  lose  and  have  done  with  it  —  after  proving  his 
case.  The  ball  whirled,  kicked,  tried  for  seat  in  two,  in 
three  points,  and  entered  17.  The  usual  temporary 
wonderment  flew  round  the  table;  and  this  number 
was  courted  in  dread,  avoided  with  apprehension. 

Abrane  let  fly  a  mighty  breath :    "  Virgin,  by  Jove  ! " 

Success  was  a  small  matter  to  Gower  Woodseer.  He 
displayed  his  contempt  of  fortune  by  letting  his  heap 
of  bank-notes  lie  on  Impair,  and  he  won.  Abrane 
bade  him  say  "  Maximum '^  in  a  furious  whisper.  He 
did  so,  as  one  at  home  with  the  word;  and  winning 
repeatedly,  observed  to  Fleetwood :  "  Now  I  can  under- 
stand what  historians  mean,  in  telling  us  of  heroes 
rushing  into  the  fray  and  vainly  seeking  death.  I 
always  thought  death  was  to  be  had,  if  you  were  in 
earnest." 

Fleetwood  scrutinized  the  cast  of  his  features  and 
the  touch  of  his  fingers  on  the  crispy  i^aper. 

"Come  to  another  of  these  ^ green  fields,'"  he 
returned  briefly.     "The  game  here  is  child's  play." 

Urging  Virgin  Luck  not  to  quit  his  initiatory  table, 
the   captain  reluctantly   went   at  their  heels.     Shortly 


126  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

before  the  tables  were  clad  in  mantles  for  the  night, 
he  reported  to  Livia  one  of  the  great  cases  of  Virgin 
Luck;  described  it,  from  the  silver  piece  to  the  big 
heap  of  notes,  and  drew  on  his  envy  of  the  fellow  to 
sketch  the  indomitable  coolness  shown  in  following  or 
in  quitting  a  run.  "  That  fellow  it  is,  Fleetwood's 
tag-rag ;  holds  his  head  like  a  street-fiddler ;  Woodier 
or  some  name.  But  there's  nothing  to  be  done  if  we 
don't  cultivate  him.  He  must  have  pocketed  a  good 
three  thousand  and  more.  They  had  a  quarrel  about 
calculations  of  chances,  and  Fleet  ran  the  V  up  his  fore- 
head at  a  piece  of  impudence.  Fellow  says  some  high-fly- 
ing stuff ;  Fleet  brightens  like  a  Sunday  chimney-sweep. 
If  I  believe  in  Black  Arts  upon  my  word  ! " 

"Russett  is  not  usually  managed  with  ease,"  the 
lady  said. 

Her  placid  observation  was  directed  on  the  pair 
then  descending  the  steps. 

"Be  careful  how  you  address  this  gentleman,"  she 
counselled  Abrane.  '-  The  name  is  not  Woodier,  I 
know.     It  must  be  the  right  name  or  none." 

Livia's  fairest  smile  received  them.  She  heard  the 
captain  accosting  the  child  of  luck  as  Mr.  Woodier, 
and  she  made  a  rustle  in  rising  to  take  Fleetwood's  arm. 

"We  haven't  dined,  we  have  to  sup,"  said  he. 

"You  are  released  at  the  end  of  the  lamps.  You 
redeem  your  ring,  Russett,  and  I  will  restore  it.  I 
have  to  tell  you,  Henrietta  is  here,  to-morrow." 


THE  BLACK  GODDESS  FORTUNE       127 

"She  might  be  in  a  better  place." 

"The  place  where  she  is  to  be  seen  is  not  generally 
undervalued  by  men.  It  is  not  her  fault  that  she  is 
absent.  The  admiral  was  persuaded  to  go  and  attend 
those  cavalry  manoeuvres  with  the  grand  duke,  to 
whom  he  had  been  civil  when  in  command  in  the 
Mediterranean  squadron.  You  know,  the  admiral 
believes  he  has  military  —  I  mean  soldierly  —  genius; 
and  the  delusion  may  have  given  him  wholesome 
exercise  and  helped  him  to  forget  his  gout.  So  far, 
Henrietta  will  have  been  satisfied.  She  cannot  have 
found  much  amusement  among  dusty  troopers  or  at 
that  court  at  Carlsruhe.  Our  French  milliner  there 
has  helped  in  retarding  her  —  quite  against  her  will. 
She  has  had  to  choose  a  ball-dress  for  the  raw 
mountain-girl  they  have  with  them,  and  get  her  fitted, 
and  it's  a  task !  Why  take  her  to  the  ball  ?  But  the 
admiral's  infatuated  Avith  this  girl^  and  won't  hear  of 
her  exclusion  —  because,  he  says,  she  understands  a 
field  of  battle ;  and  the  Ducal  party  have  taken  to 
her.  Ah,  Eussett,  you  should  not  have  flown!  No 
harm,  only  Henrietta  does  require  a  trifle  of  manage- 
ment. She  writes,  that  she  is  sure  of  you  for  the 
night  at  the  Schloss." 

"Why,  ma'am?" 

"  You  have  given  your  word.  '  He  never  breaks 
his  lightest  word,'  she  says." 

"  It  sounds  like  the  beginning  of  respect." 


128  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"The  rarest  thing  men  teach  women  to  feel  for 
them ! " 

"  A  respectable  love  match  —  eh  ?  Good  Lord !  — 
You'll  be  civil  to  my  friend.  You  have  struck  him  to 
the  dust.     You  have  your  one  poetical  admirer  in  him." 

"  I  am  honoured,  E/Ussett." 

"Cleared  out,  I  suppose?  Abrane  is  a  funnel  for 
pouring  into  that  Bank.  Have  your  fun  as  you  like  it ! 
I  shall  get  supplies  to-morrow.  By  the  way^  you  have 
that  boy  Cressett  here.     What  are  you  doing  with  him  ?  " 

Livia  spoke  of  watching  over  him  and  guarding  him. 

"  He  was  at  the  table  beside  me,  bursting  to  liave  a 
fling ;  and  my  friend  Mr.  Woodseer  said,  it  was  ^  Adonis 
come  to  spy  the  boar ' :  —  the  picture !  " 

Prompt  as  bugle  to  the  breath,  Livia  proposed  to  bet 
him  fifty  pounds  that  she  would  keep  young  Cressett 
from  gambling  a  single  louis.  The  pretty  saying  did 
not  touch  her. 

Fleetwood  moved  and  bowed.  Sir  Meeson  Corby  simu- 
lated a  petrifaction  of  his  frame  at  seeing  the  Countess 
of  Fleetwood  actually  partly  bent  with  her  gracious 
acknowledgment  of  the  tramp's  gawky  homage. 


SMALL   CAUSES  129 

CHAPTEE  X 

SMALL    CAUSES 

A  CLOCK  sounded  one  of  the  later  morning  hours  of 
the  night  as  Gower  Woodseer  stood  at  his  hotel  door, 
having  left  Fleetwood  with  a  band  of  revellers.  The 
night  was  now  clear.  Stars  were  low  over  the  ridge  of 
pines,  di'opped  to  a  league  of  our  strange  world  to  record 
the  doings.  Beneath  this  roof  lay  the  starry  She.  He 
was  elected  to  lie  beneath  it  also:  and  he  beheld  his 
heavenly  lady  floating  on  the  lull  of  soft  white  cloud 
among  her  sister  spheres.  After  the  way  of  imaginative 
young  men,  he  had  her  features  more  accurately  now 
she  was  hidden,  and  he  idealized  her  more.  He  could 
escape  for  a  time  from  his  coil  of  similes  and  paint  for 
himself  the  irids  of  her  large,  long,  grey  eyes  darkly 
rimmed  ;  purest  water-grey,  lucid  within  the  ring,  beneath 
an  arch  of  lashes.  He  had  them  fast ;  but  then  he  fell 
to  contemplating  their  exceeding  rareness;  and  the 
mystery  of  the  divinely  grey  swung  a  kindled  fancy  to 
the  flight  with  some  queen-witch  of  woods,  of  whom  a 
youth  may  dream  under  the  spell  of  twilights  East  or 
West  among  forest  branches. 

She  had  these  marvellous  eyes  and  the  glamour  for 
men.  She  had  not  yet  met  a  man  with  the  poetical 
twist  in  the  brain  to  prize   her  elementally.     All   ad- 


130  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

mitted  the  glamour;  none  of  her  courtiers  was  able  to 
name  it,  even  the  poetical  head  giving  it  a  name  did  not 
think  of  the  witch  in  her  looks  as  a  witch  in  her  deeds, 
a  modern  daughter  of  the  mediaeval.  To  her  giant 
squire  the  eyes  of  the  lady  were  queer :  they  were 
unlit  glass  lamps  to  her  French  suppliant;  and  to  the 
others,  they  were  attractively  uncommon;  the  charm 
for  them  being  in  her  fine  outlines,  her  stature,  carriage 
of  her  person  and  unalterable  composure ;  particularly 
her  latent  daring.  She  had  the  effect  on  the  general 
mind  of  a  lofty  crag-castle  with  a  history.  There  was  a 
whiff  of  gunpowder  exciting  the  atmosphere  in  the  anec- 
dotal part  of  the  history  known. 

Woodseer  sat  for  a  certain  time  Q,ver  his  note-book. 
He  closed  it  with  a  thrilling  conceit  of  the  right  thing 
written  down;  such  as  entomologists  feel  when  they 
have  pinned  the  rare  insect.  But  what  is  butterfly  or 
beetle  compared  with  the  chiselled  sentences  carved  out 
of  air  to  constitute  us  part  owner  of  the  breathing  image 
and  spirit  of  an  adored  fair  woman  ?  We  repeat  them, 
and  the  act  of  repeating  them  makes  her  close  on  ours, 
by  virtue  of  the  eagle  thought  in  the  stamped  gold  of 
the  lines. 

Then,  though  she  is  not  ever  to  be  absolutely  ours  (and 
it  is  an  impoverishing  desire  that  she  should  be),  we  have 
beaten  out  the  golden  sentence  —  the  essential  she  and  we 
in  one.  But  is  it  so  precious  after  all  ?  A  suspicious 
ring  of  an  adjective  drops  us  on  a  sickening  descent. 


SMALL  CAUSES  131 

The  author  dashed  at  his  book,  examined,  approved, 
keenly  enjoyed,  and  he  murderously  scratched  the 
adjective.  She  stood  better  Avithout  it,  as  a  bright 
planet  star  issuing  from  clouds,  which  are  perhaps  an 
adornment  to  our  hackneyed  moon.  This  done,  he 
restored  the  book  to  his  coat's  breast-pocket,  smiling 
or  sneering  at  the  rolls  of  bank-notes  there,  disdaining 
to  count  them.  They  stuffed  an  inner  waistcoat  pocket 
and  his  trousers  also.  They  at  any  rate  warranted 
that  we  can  form  a  calculation  of  the  chances,  let 
Lord  Fleetwood  rave  as  he  may  please. 

Woodseer  had  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  elbow-point 
of  his  coat  when  flinging  it  back  to  the  chair.  There 
was  distinctly  abrasion.  Philosophers  laugh  at  such 
things.  But  they  must  be  the  very  ancient  pallium 
philosophers,  ensconced  in  tubs,  if  they  pretend  to 
merriment  over  the  spectacle  of  nether  garments  gapped 
at  the  spot  where  man  is  most  vulnerable.  He  got 
loose  from  them  and  held  them  up  to  the  candle,  and 
the  rays  were  admitted,  neither  winking  nor  peeping. 
Serviceable  old  clothes,  no  doubt.  Time  had  not  dealt 
them  the  final  kick  before  they  scored  a  good  record. 
They  dragged  him,  nevertheless,  to  a  sort  of  confession 
of  'some  weakness,  that  he  could  not  analyze  for  the 
swirl  of  emotional  thoughts  in  the  way;  and  they  had 
him  to  the  ground.  An  eagle  of  the  poetic  becomes  a 
mere  squat  toad  through  one  of  these  petty  material 
strokes.     Where  then   is   Philosophy?     But    who    can 


132  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

be  philosopher  and  the  fervent  admirer  of  a  glorious 
lady  !  Ask  again,  who  in  that  frowzy  garb  can  pre- 
sume to  think  of  her  or  stand  within  fifty  miles  of 
her  orbit? 

A  dreary  two  hours  brought  round  daylight.  Wood- 
seer  quitted  his  restless  bed  and  entered  the  abjured 
habiliments,  chivalrous  enough  to  keep  from  denounc- 
ing them  until  he  could  cast  the  bad  skin  they  now 
were  to  his  uneasy  sensations.  He  remembered  having 
stumbled  and  fallen  on  the  slope  of  the  hill  into  this 
vale,  and  probably  then  the  mischief  had  occurred: 
though  a  brush  would  have  been  suflS.cient,  the  slightest 
collision.  Only,  it  was  odd  that  the  accident  should 
have  come  to  pass  just  previous  to  his  introduction. 
How  long  antecedent  was  it  ?  He  belaboured  his 
memory  to  reckon  how  long  it  was  from  the  moment 
of  the  fall  to  the  first  sight  of  that  lady. 

His  window  looked  dowai  on  the  hotel  stable-yard. 
A  coach-house  door  was  open.  Odd  or  not  —  and  it 
certainly  looked  like  fate  —  that  he  should  be  bowing 
to  his  lady  so  shortly  after  the  mishap  expelling  him, 
he  had  to  leave  the  place.  A  groom  in  the  yard 
was  hailed,  and  cheerily  informed  him  he  could  be 
driven  to  Carlsruhe  as  soon  as  the  coachman  had 
finished  his  breakfast.  At  Carlsruhe  a  decent  refitting 
might  be  obtained,  and  he  could  return  from  exile 
that  very  day,  thanks  to  the  praiseworthy  early  hours 
of  brave  old  Germany. 


SMALL  CAUSES  133 

He  had  swallowed  a  cup  of  coffee  with  a  roll  of 
stale  bread,  in  the  best  of  moods,  and  entered  his 
carriage ;  he  was  calling  the  order  to  start  when  a 
shout  surprised  his  ear :  "  The  fiddler  bolts ! '' 

Captain  Abrane's  was  the  voice.  About  twenty- 
paces  behind,  Abrane,  Fleetwood,  and  one  whom  they 
called  Chummy  Potts,  were  wildly  waving  arms.  Wood- 
seer  could  hear  the  captain's  lowered  roar :  "  Race  you, 
Chummy,  couple  of  louis,  catch  him  first ! "  The  two 
came  pelting  up  to  the  carriage  abreast. 

They  were  belated  revellers,  and  had  been  carelessly 
strolling  under  the  pinky  cloudlets  bedward,  after  a  pro- 
longed carousal  with  the  sons  and  daughters  of  hilarious 
nations,  until  the  apparition  of  Virgin  Luck  on  the  wing 
shocked  all  prospect  of  a  dead  fight  with  the  tables  that 
day. 

"  Here,  come,  no,  by  Jove,  you,  Mr.  Woodsir !  won't 
do,  not  a  bit !  can't  let  you  go,"  cried  Abrane,  as 
he  puffed.  "  What !  cut  and  run  and  leave  us,  post 
winnings  —  bankers  —  knock  your  luck  on  the  head  ! 
'\^Tiat  a  fellow  !  Can't  let  you.  Countess  never  forgive 
us.  You  promised  —  swore  it  —  play  for  her.  Struck 
all  aheap  to  hear  of  your  play!  You've  got  the  trick. 
Her  purse  for  you  in  my  pocket.  Never  a  fellow  played 
like  you.  Cool  as  a  cook  over  a  gridiron!  Comme 
un  phare !  St.  Ombre  says  —  that  Frenchman.  You 
astonished  the  Frenchman  !  And  now  cut  and  run  ? 
Can't  allow  it.     Honour  of  the  country  at  stake." 


134  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"Hands  off!'^  Woodseer  bellowed,  feeling  himself 
a  leaky  vessel  in  dock,  his  infirmities  in  danger  of 
exposure.  "  If  yon  pull !  —  what  the  deuce  do  you 
want  ?     Stop !  " 

"Out  you  come,"  said  the  giant,  and  laughed  at  the 
fun  to  his  friends,  who  were  entirely  harmonious  when 
not  violently  dissenting,  as  is  the  way  with  Night's 
rollickers  before  their  beds  have  reconciled  them  to  the 
day-beams. 

Woodseer  would  have  had  to  come  and  was  coming ; 
he  happened  to  say :  "  Don't  knock  my  pipe  out  of  my 
mouth,"  and  touched  a  chord  in  the  giant. 

"All  right;  smoke  your  pipe,"  was  answered  to  his 
remonstrance. 

During  the  amnesty,  Fleetwood  inquired:  "Where 
are  you  going  ?  " 

"  For  a  drive,  to  be  sure.     Don't  you  see !  " 

"You'll  return?" 

"  I  intend  to  return.'^ 

"  He's  beastly  excited,"  quoth  Abrane. 

Fleetwood  silenced  him,  though  indeed  Woodseer 
appeared  suspiciously  restive. 

"  Step  down  and  have  a  talk  with  me  before  you  start. 
You're  not  to  go  yet." 

"I  must.     I'm  in  a  hurry." 

"What's  the  hurry?" 

"  I  want  to  smoke  and  think." 

"  Takes  a  carriage  on  the  top  of  the  morning  to  smoke 


SMALL   CAUSES  135 

and  think !  Hark  at  that ! "  Abrane  sang  ont.  "  Oh, 
come  along  quietly,  you  fellow,  there's  a  good  fellow ! 
It  concerns  us  all,  every  man  Jack;  we're  all  bound  up 
in  your  fortunes.  Fellow  with  luck  like  yours  can't 
pretend  to  behave  independently.     Out  of  reason !  " 

"  Do  you  give  me  your  word  you  return  ? "  said 
Fleetwood. 

Woodseer  replied  :  "  Very  well,  I  do ;  there,  I  give 
my  word.  Hang  it !  now  I  know  what  they  mean  by 
^  anything  for  a  quiet  life.'  Just  a  shake  brings  us  down 
on  that  cane-bottomed  chair ! " 

"  You  return  to-day  ?  " 

"  To-day,  yes,  yes." 

Fleetwood  signified  the  captive's  release ;  and  Abrane 
immediately  suggested :  — 

"Pop  old  Chummy  in  beside  the  fellow  to  mount 
guard." 

Potts  was  hustled  and  precipitated  into  the  carriage 
by  the  pair,  with  whom  he  partook  this  last  glimmer  of 
their  night's  humorous  extravagances,  for  he  was  an 
easy  creature.     The  carriage  drove  off. 

"  Keep  him  company  ! "  they  shouted. 

"  Escort  him  back  ! "  said  he,  nodding. 

He  remarked  to  Woodseer  :  "  With  your  permission," 
concerning  the  seat  he  took,  and  that  "  a  draught  of  morn- 
ing air  would  do  him  good."  Then  he  laughed  politely, 
exchanged  wavy  distant  farewells  with  his  comrades, 
touched  a  breast-pocket  for  his  case  of  cigars,  pulled  forth 


136  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

one,  obtained  "  the  loan  of  a  light,''  blew  clouds  and  fell 
into  the  anticipated  composure^  quite  understanding  the 
case  and  his  office. 

Both  agreed  as  to  the  fine  morning  it  was.  Woodseer 
briefly  assented  to  his  keeper's  reiterated  encomium  on 
the  morning,  justified  on  oath.  A  fine  morning,  indeed. 
'^  Damned  if  I  think  I  ever  saw  so  fine  a  morning ! " 
Potts  cried.  He  had  no  other  subject  of  conversation 
with  this  hybrid:  and  being  equally  disposed  for  hot 
discourse  or  for  sleep,  the  deprivation  of  the  one  and 
the  other  forced  him  to  seek  amusement  in  his  famous 
reading  of  character ;  which  was  profound  among  the 
biped  equine,  jockeys,  turfmen,  sharpers,  pugilists, 
demireps.  He  fronted  Woodseer  with  square  shoulders 
and  wide  knees,  an  elbow  on  one,  a  fist  on  the  other, 
engaged  in  what  he  termed  the  "prodding  of  his  eel," 
or  '^  nicking  of  his  man,"  a  method  of  getting  straight 
at  the  riddle  of  the  fellow  by  the  test  of  how  long  he 
could  endure  a  flat  mute  stare  and  return  look  for  look 
unblinking.  The  act  of  smoking  fortifies  and  partly 
covers  the  insolence.  But  if  by  chance  an  equable,  not 
too  narrowly  focussed,  counterstare  is  met,  our  imperti- 
nent inquisitor  may  resemble  the  fisherman  pulled  into 
deep  waters  by  his  fish.  Woodseer  perused  his  man, 
he  was  not  attempting  to  fathom  him:  he  had  besides 
other  stuff  in  his  head.  Potts  had  naught,  and  the  poor 
particle  he  was  wriggled  under  detection. 

"  Tobacco  before    breakfast ! "    he    said    disgustedly, 


SMALL  CAUSES  137 

tossing  his  cigar  to  the  road.  "Your  pipe  holds  on. 
Bad  thing,  I  can  tell  you,  that  smoking  on  an  empty- 
stomach.  No  trainer'd  allow  it,  not  for  a  whole  fee  or 
double.  Kills  your  wind.  Let  me  ask  you,  my  good 
sir,  are  you  going  to  turn  ?  We've  sat  a  fairish  stretch. 
I  begin  to  want  my  bath  and  a  shave,  linen  and  coffee. 
Thirsty  as  a  dog." 

He  heard  with  stupefaction,  that  he  could  alight  on 
the  spot,  if  he  pleased,  otherwise  he  would  be  driven 
into  Carlsruhe.  And  now  they  had  a  lingual  encounter, 
hot  against  cool ;  but  the  eyes  of  Chummy  Potts  having 
been  beaten,  his  arguments  and  reproaches  were  not 
backed  by  the  powerful  looks  which  are  an  essential 
part  of  such  eloquence  as  he  commanded.  They  fled 
from  his  enemy's  currishly,  even  while  he  was  launching 
epithets.  His  pathetic  position  subjected  him  to  beg 
that  Woodseer  would  direct  the  driver  to  turn,  for  he 
had  no  knowledge  of  "  their  German  lingo."  And  said 
he :  "  You've  nothing  to  laugh  at,  that  I  can  see.  I'm  at 
your  mercy,  you  brute ;  caught  in  a  trap.  I  never  walk ; 
—  and  the  sun  fit  to  fry  a  mackerel  along  that  road !  I 
apologize  for  abusing  you ;  I  can't  do  more.  You're  an 
infernally  clever  player  —  there !  And,  upon  my  soul,  I 
could  drink  ditchwater !  But  if  you're  going  in  for 
transactions  at  Carlsruhe,  mark  my  words,  your  luck's 
gone.     Laugh  as  much  as  you  like." 

Woodseer  happened  to  be  smiling  over  the  excellent 
reason  for  not  turning  back  which   inflicted   the  woful- 


138  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

ness.  He  was  not  without  sympathy  for  a  thirsty 
wretch,  and  guessing,  at  the  sight  of  an  avenue  of  limes 
to  the  left  of  the  road,  that  a  wayside  inn  was  below,  he 
said:  "You  can  have  coffee  or  beer  in  two  minutes," 
and  told  the  driver  where  to  pull  up. 

The  sight  of  a  grey-jacketed,  green-collared  sportsman, 
dog  at  heel,  crossing  the  flat  land  to  the  hills  of  the 
forest,  pricked  him  enviously,  and  caused  him  to  ask 
what  change  had  come  upon  him,  that  he  should  be 
hurrying  to  a  town  for  a  change  of  clothes.  Just  as 
Potts  was  about  to  jump  out,  a  carriage,  with  a  second 
behind  it,  left  the  inn  door.  He  rubbed  a  hand  on  his 
unshaven  chin,  tried  a  glance  at  his  shirt-front,  and 
remarking :  ''  It  won't  be  any  one  Avho  knows  me,"  stood 
to  let  the  carriages  pass.  In  the  first  were  a  young  lady 
and  a  gentleman:  the  lady  brilliantly  fair,  an  effect  of 
auburn  hair  and  complexion,  despite  the  signs  of  a  storm 
that  had  swept  them  and  had  not  cleared  from  her  eye- 
lids. Apparently  her  maid,  a  damsel  sitting  straight  up, 
occupied  the  carriage  following;  and  this  fresh-faced 
young  person  twice  quickly  and  bluntly  bent  her  head 
as  she  was  driven  by.  Potts  was  unacquainted  with  the 
maid.  But  he  knew  the  lady  well,  or  well  enough  for 
her  inattention  to  be  the  bigger  puzzle.  She  gazed  at 
the  Black  Porest  hills  in  the  steadiest  manner,  with  eyes 
betraying  more  than  they  saw ;  which  solved  part  of  the 
puzzle,  of  course.  Her  reasons  for  declining  to  see  him 
were  exposed  by  the  presence  of  the  gentleman  beside 


SMALL  CAUSES  139 

her.  At  the  same  time,  in  so  highly  bred  a  girl,  a 
defenceless  exposure  was  unaccountable.  Half  a  nod 
and  the  shade  of  a  smile  would  have  been  the  proper 
course ;  and  her  going  along  on  the  road  to  the  valley 
seemed  to  say  it  might  easily  have  been  taken;  except 
that  there  had  evidently  been  a  bit  of  a  scene. 

Potts  ranked  Henrietta's  beauty  far  above  her  cousin 
Livia's.  He  was  therefore  personally  offended  by  her 
disregard  of  him,  and  her  bit  of  a  scene  with  the  fellow 
carrying  her  off  did  him  injury  on  behalf  of  his  friend 
Fleetwood.  He  dismissed  Woodseer  curtly.  Thirsting 
more  to  gossip  than  to  drink,  he  took  a  moody  draught 
of  beer  at  the  inn,  and  by  the  aid  of  a  conveyance, 
"hastily  built  of  rotten  planks  to  serve  his  needs,  and 
drawn  by  a  horse  of  the  old  wars,"  as  he  reported  on  his 
arrival  at  Baden,  reached  that  home  of  the  maltreated 
innocents  twenty  minutes  before  the  countess  and  her 
party  were  to  start  for  lunch  up  the  Lichtenthal.  Natu- 
rally, he  was  abused  for  letting  his  bird  fly :  but  as  he 
was  shaven,  refreshed,  and  in  clean  linen,  he  could  pull 
his  shirt-cuffs  and  take  seat  at  his  breakfast-table  with 
equanimity  while  Abrane  denounced  him. 

"1  bet  you  the  fellow's  luck  has  gone,"  said  Potts. 
"  He's  no  new  hand  and  you  don't  think  him  so  either, 
Fleet.  I've  looked  into  the  fellow's  eye  and  seen  a  leery 
old  badger  at  the  bottom  of  it.  Talks  vile  stuff.  How- 
ever, perhaps  I  didn't  drive  out  on  that  sweltering  Carls- 
ruhe  road  for  nothing." 


140  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

He  screwed  a  look  at  the  earl,  who  sent  Abrane  to 
carry  a  message  and  heard  the  story  Potts  had  to  tell. 

"  Henrietta  Fakenham  !  no  mistake  about  her ;  driving 
out  from  a  pothouse ;  man  beside  her,  military  man ; 
might  be  a  German.  And,  if  you  please,  quite  unac- 
quainted with  your  humble  servant,  though  we  were  as 
close  as  you  to  me.  Something  went  wrong  in  that  pot- 
house. Red  eyes.  There  had  been  a  scene,  one  could 
swear.  Behind  the  lady  another  carriage,  and  her  maid. 
Never  saw  the  girl  before,  and  sets  to  bowing  and  smirk- 
ing at  me,  as  if  I  was  the  fellow  of  all  others !  Comical. 
I  made  sure  they  were  bound  for  this  place.  They  were 
on  the  Strasburg  road.     No  sign  of  them  ?  " 

"  You  speak  to  me  ?  ''  said  Fleetwood. 

Potts  muttered.     He  had  put  his  foot  into  it. 

''  You  have  a  bad  habit  of  speaking  to  yourself,"  Fleet- 
wood remarked,  and  left  him.  He  suffered  from  the 
rustics  he  had  to  deal  with  among  his  class,  and  it  was 
not  needed  that  he  should  thunder  at  them  to  make  his 
wrath  felt. 

Livia  swam  in,  asking :  "  What  has  come  to  Eussett  ? 
He  passed  me  in  one  of  his  black  fits." 

The  tale  of  the  Carlsruhe  road  was  repeated  by  Potts. 
She  reproved  him.  "  How  could  you  choose  Eussett  for 
such  a  report  as  that !  The  admiral  was  on  the  road 
behind.  Henrietta — you're  sure  it  was  she?  German 
girls  have  much  the  same  colouring.  The  gentleman 
with  her  must  have  been   one  of  the  Court   equerries. 


THE  PRISONER   OF   HIS   WORD  141 

They  were  driving  to  some  chateau  or  battle-field  the 
admiral  wanted  to  inspect.  Good-looking  man?  Mili- 
tary man  ?  " 

"Oh  !  the  man !  pretty  fair,  I  dare  say,"  Potts  rejoined. 
"  If  it  wasn't  Henrietta  Fakenham,  I  see  with  the  back 
of  my  head.  German  girl !  The  maid  was  a  German 
girl." 

"  That  may  Avell  be,"  said  Livia. 

She  conceived  the  news  to  be  of  sufficient  importance 
for  her  to  countermand  the  drive  up  the  Lichtenthal,  and 
take  the  Carlsruhe  road  instead;  for  Henrietta  was  weak, 
and  Chillon  Kirby  an  arch-plotter,  and  pleader  too,  one 
of  the  desperate  lovers.  He  was  outstaying  his  leave  of 
absence  already,  she  believed ;  he  had  to  be  in  England. 
If  he  feared  to  lose  Henrietta,  he  would  not  hesitate  to 
carry  her  off.  Livia  knew  him,  and  knew  the  power  of 
his  pleading  with  a  firmer  woman  than  Henrietta. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    PRISOXEE,    OF    HIS    WORD 

Nothing  to  rouse  alarm  was  discovered  at  Carlsruhe. 
Livia's  fair  cousin  was  there  with  the  red-haired  gaunt 
girl  of  the  mountains ;  and  it  was  frankly  stated  by 
Henrietta,  that  she  had  accompanied  the  girl  a  certain 
distance  along  the  Strasburg  road,  for  her  to  see  the  last 


142  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

of  her  brother  Chillon  on  his  way  to  England.  Livia 
was  not  the  woman  to  push  inquiries.  On  that  subject, 
she  merely  said,  as  soon  as  they  were  alone  together: 
"You  seem  to  have  had  the  lion's  share  of  the 
parting." 

"  Yes,  we  passed  Mr.  Chmnley  Potts,"  was  Henrietta's 
immediate  answer;  and  her  reference  to  him  disarmed 
Livia. 

They  smiled  at  his  name  transiently,  but  in  agree- 
ment :  the  tattler-spout  of  their  set  was  a  fatal  person  to 
encounter,  and  each  deemed  the  sudden  apparition  of 
him  in  the  very  early  morning  along  the  Carlsruhe  road 
rather  magical. 

"  You  place  particular  confidence  in  E-ussett's  fidelity 
to  his  word,  Eiette  —  as  you  have  been  hearing  yourself 
called.  You  should  be  serious  by  this  time.  Eussett 
won't  bear  much  more.  I  counted  on  the  night  of  the 
Ball  for  the  grand  effect.  You  will  extinguish  every 
woman  there  —  and  if  he  is  absent?" 

"I  shall  excuse  him." 

"  You  are  not  in  a  position  to  be  so  charitable.  You 
ought  to  know  your  position,  and  yourself  too,  a  little 
better  than  you  do.  How  could  you  endure  poverty? 
Chillon  Kirby  stands  in  his  uniform,  and  all's  told.  He 
can  manoeuvre,  we  know.  He  got  the  admiral  away  to 
take  him  to  those  reviews  cleverly.  But  is  he  thinking 
of  your  interests  when  he  does  it  ?  He  requires  twenty 
years  of  active  service  to  give  you  a  roof  to  your  head. 


THE  PRISONER   OF   HIS   WORD  143 

I  hate  such  allusions.  But  look  for  a  moment  at  your 
character:  you  must  have  ordinary  luxuries  and  pleas- 
ures, and  if  you  were  to  find  yourself  grinding  against 
common  necessities  —  imagine  it!  Eussett  is  quite 
manageable.  He  is,  trust  me !  He  is  a  gentleman ;  he 
has  more  ability  than  most  young  men:  he  can  do 
anything  he  sets  his  mind  to  do.  He  has  his  great 
estates  and  fortune  all  in  his  own  hands.  AVe  call  him 
eccentric.  He  is  only  young,  with  a  lot  of  power.  Add, 
he's  in  love,  and  some  one  distracts  him.  Not  love,  do 
you  say  ?  —  You  look  it.  He  worships.  He  has  no 
chance  given  him  to  show  himself  at  his  best.  Perhaps 
he  is  off  again  now.     Will  you  bet  me  he  is  not?' 

"I  should  incline  to  make  the  bet,  if  I  betted,"  said 
Henrietta.  "His  pride  is  in  his  word,  and  supposing 
he's  in  love,  it's  with  his  pride,  which  never  quits  him." 

"There's  firmness  in  a  man  who  has  pride  of  that 
kind.  You  must  let  me  take  you  back  to  Baden.  I  hold 
to  having  you  with  me  to-day.  You  must  make  an 
appearance  there.  The  Admiral  will  bring  us  his  Miss 
Kirby  to-morrow,  if  he  is  bound  to  remain  here  to-night. 
There's  no  harm  in  his  bachelor  dinners.  I  suspect  his 
twinges  of  gout  come  of  the  prospect  of  affairs  when  he 
lands  in  England.  Eemember  our  bill  with  Madame  Cle- 
mence.  There  won't  be  the  ghost  of  a  bank-note  for  me 
if  Eussett  quits  the  field ;  we  shall  all  be  stranded." 

Henrietta  inquired:  "Does  it  depend  on  my  going 
with  you  to-day  ?  " 


144  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"  Consider,  that  lie  is  now  fancying  a  thousand  things. 
We  won't  talk  of  the  road  to  Paris." 

A  shot  of  colour  swept  over  Henrietta. 

"I  will  speak  to  papa.  If  he  can  let  me  go.  He 
has  taken  to  Miss  Kirby." 

"  Does  she  taste  well  ?  " 

Henrietta  debated.  "It's  impossible  to  dislike  her. 
Oh !  she  is  wild !  She  knows  absolutely  nothing  of 
the  world.  She  can  do  everything  we  can't  —  or  don't 
dare  to  try.  Men  would  like  her.  Papa's  beginning 
to  dote.  He  says  she  would  have  made  a  first-rate 
soldier.  She  fears  blood  as  little  as  her  morning  cup 
of  milk.  One  of  the  orderlies  fell  rather  badly  from 
a  frightened  horse  close  by  our  carriage.  She  was 
out  in  a  moment  and  had  his  head  on  her  lap,  calling 
to  papa  to  keep  the  carriage  fast  and  block  the  way 
of  the  squadron,  for  the  man's  leg  was  hurt.  I  really 
thought  we  were  lost.  At  these  manoeuvres  anything 
may  happen,  at  any  instant.  Papa  will  follow  the 
horse-artillery.  You  know  his  vanity  to  be  a  mili- 
tary quite  as  much  as  a  naval  commander  —  like  the 
Greeks  and  Komans,  he  says.  We  took  the  bruised 
man  into  our  carriage  and  drove  him  to  camp,  Ca- 
rinthia  nursing  him  on  the  way." 

"  Carinthia !  She's  well  fitted  with  her  name.  What 
with  her  name  and  her  hair  and  her  build  and  her 
singular  style  of  attire,  one  wonders  at  her  coming 
into  civilized  parts.     She's  utterly  unlike  Chillon." 


THE  PRISONER   OF   HIS   WORD  145 

Henrietta  reddened  at  the  mention  of  one  of  her 
OAvn  thoughts  in  the  contrasting  of  the  pair. 

They  had  their  points  of  likeness,  she  said. 

It  did  not  concern  Livia  to  hear  what  these  were. 
Back  to  Baden,  with  means  to  procure  the  pleasant 
shocks  of  the  galvanic  battery  there,  was  her  thought; 
for  she  had  a  fear  of  the  earl's  having  again  departed 
in  a  huff  at  Henrietta's  behaviour. 

The  admiral  consented  that  his  daughter  should  go, 
as  soon  as  he  heard  that  Miss  Kirby  was  to  slay. 
He  had  when  a  young  man  met  her  famous  father; 
he  vowed  she  was  the  Old  Buccaneer  young  again  in 
petticoats  and  had  made  prize  of  an  English  man-of- 
war  by  storm ;  all  the  profit,  however,  being  his.  This 
he  proved  with  a  courteous  clasp  of  the  girl  and  a 
show  of  the  salute  on  her  cheek,  which  he  presumed 
to  take  at  the  night's  farewell.  "She's  my  tonic,"  he 
proclaimed  heartily.  She  seemed  to  Livia  somewhat 
unstrung  and  toneless.  The  separation  from  her  brother 
in  the  morning  might  account  for  it.  And  a  man  of  the 
admiral's  age  could  be  excused  if  he  exalted  the  girl. 
Senility,  like  infancy,  is  fond  of  plain  outlines  for  the 
laying  on  of  its  paints.  The  girl  had  rugged  brows,  a 
short  nose,  red  hair ;  no  young  man  would  look  at  ^er 
twice.  She  was  utterly  unlike  Chillon !  Kissing  her 
hand  to  Henrietta  from  the  steps  of  the  hotel,  ^e  girl's 
face  improved. 

Livia's  little  squire.  Sir  Meeson  Corby,  ejaculated  as 


146  THE  AMAZING  MAKBIAGE 

they  were  driving  down  the  main  street,  "Fleetwood's 
tramp !  There  he  goes.  Now  see,  Miss  Fakenham,  the 
kind  of  object  Lord  Fleetwood  picks  np  and  calls 
friend!  —  calls  that  object  friend!  .  .  .  But,  what? 
He  has  been  to  a  tailor  and  a  barber!" 

"  Stop  the  coachman.  Eun,  tell  Mr.  Woodseer  I  wish 
him  to  join  us,"  Livia  said,  and  Sir  Meeson  had  to 
thank  his  tramp  for  a  second  indignity.  He  protested, 
he  simulated  remonstrance,  —  he  had  to  go,  really  feel- 
ing a  sickness. 

The  singular-looking  person,  whose  necessities  or 
sense  of  the  decencies  had,  unknown  to  himself  and  to 
the  others,  put  them  all  in  motion  that  day,  swung 
round  listening  to  the  challenge  to  arms,  as  the  puffy 
little  man's  delivery  of  the  countess's  message  sounded. 
He  was  respectably  clad,  he  thought,  in  the  relief  of 
his  escape  from  the  suit  of  clothes  discarded,  and  he 
silently  followed  Sir  Meeson's  trot  to  the  carriage. 
"  Should  have  mistaken  you  for  a  German  to-day,  sir," 
the  latter  said,  and  trotted  on. 

"A  stout  one,"  Woodseer  replied,  with  his  happy 
indifference  to  his  exterior. 

His  dark  lady's  eyes  were  kindly  overlooking,  like 
the  heavens.  Her  fair  cousin,  to  whom  he  bov/ed, 
awakened  him  to  a  perception  of  the  spectacle  causing 
the  slight,  quick  arrest  of  her  look,  in  an  astonishment 
not  unlike  the  hiccup  in  speech,  while  her  act  of 
courtesy  proceeded.    ^At  once  he  was  conscious  of  the 


THE  PRISONER   OF   HIS   WORD  147 

price  he  paid  for  respectability,  and  saw  tlie  Teuton 
skin  on  the  slim  Cambrian,  baggy  at  shoulders,  baggy 
at  seat,  pinched  at  the  knees,  short  at  the  heels,  show- 
ing outrageously  every  spot  where  he  ought  to  have 
been  bigger  or  smaller.  How  accept  or  how  reject  the 
invitation  to  drive  in  such  company  to  Baden ! 

"You're  decided  enough,  sir,  in  your  play,  they  tell 
me,"  the  vindictive  little  baronet  commented  on  his 
hesitation,  and  Woodseer  sprang  to  the  proffered  va- 
cant place.  But  he  had  to  speak  of  his  fly  waiting 
for  him  at  the  steps  of  a  certain  hotel. 

"  Best  hotel  in  the  town ! "  Sir  Meeson  exclaimed 
pointedly  to  Henrietta,  reading  her  constraint  with 
this  comical  object  before  her.  It  was  the  admiral's 
hotel  they  stopped  at. 

'•  Be  so  good  as  to  step  down  and  tell  the  admiral 
he  is  to  bring  Madame  Clemence  in  his  carriage 
to-morrow;  and  on  your  way,  you  will  dismiss  Mr. 
Woodseer's  fly,"  Livia  mildly  addressed  her  squire. 
He  stared:  again  he  had  to  go,  muttering:  "That 
nondescript's  footman ! "  and  his  mischance  in  being 
checked  and  crossed  and  humiliated  perpetually  by 
a  dirty-fisted  vagabond  impostor  astounded  him.  He 
sent  the  flyman  to  the  carriage  for  orders. 

Admiral  Fakenham  and  Carinthia  descended.  Sir 
Meeson  heard  her  cry  out:  "It  is  you!"  and  up 
stood  the  pretentious  lout  in  the  German  sack,  affect- 
ing the  graces  of  a  born  gentlenfan  fresh  from  Paris, 


148  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

—  bowing,  smirking,  excusing  himself  for  something; 
and  he  jumped  down  to  the  young  lady,  he  talked 
intimately  with  her,  with  a  joker's  air;  he  roused 
the  admiral  to  an  exchange  of  jokes,  and  the  coun- 
tess and  Miss  Fakenham  more  than  smiled;  evidently 
at  his  remarks,  unobservant  of  the  preposterous  figure 
he  cut.  Sir  Meeson  Corby  had  intimations  of  the  dis- 
integration of  his  country  if  a  patent  tramp  burlesquing 
in  those  clothes  could  be  permitted  to  amuse  English 
ladies  of  high  station,  quite  at  home  with  them.  Among 
the  signs  of  England's  downfall,  this  was  decidedly  one. 
What  to  think  of  the  admiral's  favourite  when,  having 
his  arm  paternally  on  her  shoulder,  she  gave  the  tramp 
her  hand  at  parting,  and  then  blushed !  All  that  the 
ladies  had  to  say  about  it  was,  that  a  spread  of  colour 
rather  went  to  change  the  character  of  her  face. 

Carinthia  had  given  Woodseer  her  hand  and  reddened 
under  the  recollection  of  Chillon's  words  to  her  as  they 
mounted  the  rise  of  the  narrow  vale,  after  leaving  the 
lame  gentleman  to  his  tobacco  on  the  grass  below  the 
rocks.  Her  brother  might  have  counselled  her  wisely 
and  was  to  be  obeyed.  Only,  the  great  pleasure  in  see- 
ing the  gentleman  again  inspired  gratitude :  he  brought 
the  scene  to  her ;  and  it  was  alive,  it  chatted  and  it 
beckoned ;  it  neighboured  her  home ;  she  had  j)assed  it 
on  her  walk  away  from  her  home ;  the  gentleman  was 
her  link  to  the  mountain  paths  ;  he  was  just  outside  an 
association  with  her  father  and  mother.     At  least,   her 


THE  PRISONER   OF   HIS    WORD  149 

thinking  of  them  led  to  him,  he  to  them.  Now  she  had 
lost  Chillon,  no  one  was  near  to  do  so  much.  Besides, 
Chillon  loved  Henrietta;  he  was  her  own.  His  heart 
was  hers  and  his  mind  his  country's.  This  gentleman 
loved  the  mountains ;  the  sight  of  him  breathed  moun- 
tain air.  To  see  him  next  day  was  her  anticipation :  for 
it  would  be  at  the  skirts  of  hilly  forest  land,  where  pine- 
trees  are  a  noble  family,  different  from  the  dusty  firs  of 
the  weariful  plains,  which  had  tired  her  eyes  of  late. 

Baden  was  her  first  peep  at  the  edges  of  the  world 
since  she  had  gro^vn  to  be  a  young  woman.  She  had 
but  a  faint  idea  of  the  significance  of  gambling.  The 
brilliant  lights,  the  band  music,  the  sitting  groups  and 
company  of  promenaders  were  novelties ;  the  Ball  of  the 
ensuing  night  at  the  Schloss  would  be  a  wonder,  she 
acknowledged  in  response  to  Henrietta,  who  was  trying 
to  understand  her;  and  she  admired  her  ball-dress,  she 
said,  looking  unintelligently  when  she  heard  that  she 
would  be  guilty  of  slaying  numbers  of  gentlemen  before 
the  night  was  over.  Madame  Clemence  thought  her 
chances  in  that  respect  as  good  as  any  other  young 
lady's,  if  only  she  could  be  got  to  feel  interested.  But 
at  a  word  of  the  pine  forest,  and  saying  she  intended 
to  climb  the  hills  early  with  the  light  in  the  morning, 
a  pointed  eagerness  flushed  Carinthia,  the  cold  engrav- 
ing became  a  picture  of  colour. 

She  was  out  with  the  earliest  light.  Yesterday's  part- 
ing between  Chillon  and  Henrietta  had   taught  her  to 


150  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

know  some  little  about  love ;  and  if  her  voice  had  been 
heeded  by  Chillon's  beloved,  it  would  not  have  been  a 
parting.  Her  only  success  was  to  bring  a  flood  of  tears 
from  Henrietta.  The  tears  at  least  assured  her  that 
her  brother's  beautiful  girl  had  no  love  for  the  other 
one,  —  the  young  nobleman  of  the  great  wealth,  who  was 
to  be  at  the  Ball,  and  had  "  gone  flying,"  Admiral  Taken- 
ham  shrugged  to  say ;  for  Lord  Fleetwood  was  nowhere 
seen. 

The  much  talk  of  him  on  the  promenade  over  night 
fetched  his  name  to  her  thoughts ;  he  scarcely  touched  a 
mind  that  her  father  filled  when  she  was  once  again 
breathing  early  morning  air  among  the  stems  of  climb- 
ing pines,  broken  alleys  of  the  low-sweeping  spruce 
branches  and  the  bare,  straight  shafts  carrying  their 
heads  high  in  the  march  upward.  Her  old  father  was 
arch-priest  of  such  forest  land,  always  recoverable  to  her 
there.  The  suggestion  of  mountains  was  enough  to 
make  her  mind  play,  and  her  old  father  and  she  were 
aware  of  one  another  without  conversing  in  speech. 
He  pointed  at  things  to  observe ;  he  shared  her  satisfied 
hunger  for  the  solitudes  of  the  dumb  and  gromng  and 
wild  sweet-smelling.  He  would  not  let  a  sorrowful 
thought  backward  or  an  apprehensive  idea  forward  dis- 
turb the  scene.  A  half-uprooted  pine-tree  stem  propped 
mid-fall  by  standing  comrades,  and  the  downy  drop  to 
ground  and  muted  scurry  up  the  bark  of  long-brush 
squirrels,  cocktail  on  the  wary  watch,  were  noticed  by 


THE  PRISONER   OF   HIS   WORD  161 

him  as  well  as  by  her;  even  the  rotting  timber  drift, 
bark  and  cones  on  the  yellow  pine  needles,  and  the  tor- 
tuous dwarf  chestnut  pushing  level  out,  with  a  strain  of 
the  head  up,  from  a  crevice  of  mossed  rock,  among  ivy 
and  ferns;  he  saw  what  his  girl  saw.  Power  of  heart 
was  her  conjuring  magician. 

She  climbed  to  the  rock-slabs  above.  This  was  too 
easily  done.  The  poor  bit  of  effort  excited  her  frame 
to  desire  a  spice  of  danger,  her  walk  was  towering  in 
the  physical  contempt  of  a  mountain  girl  for  petty 
lowland  obstructions.  And  it  was  just  then,  by  the 
chance  of  things  —  by  the  direction  of  events,  as  Dame 
Gossip  believes  it  to  be  —  while  colour,  expression,  and 
her  proud  stature  marked  her  from  her  sex,  that  a 
gentleman,  who  was  no  other  than  Lord  Fleetwood, 
passed  Carinthia,  coming  out  of  the  deeper  pine  forest. 

Some  distance  on,  round  a  bend  of  the  path,  she 
was  tempted  to  adventure  by  a  projected  forked  head 
of  a  sturdy,  blunted,  and  twisted  little  rock-fostered 
forest  tree  pushing  horizontally  for  growth  about  thirty 
feet  above  the  lower  ground.  She  looked  on  it,  and 
took  a  step  down  to  the  stem  soon  after.  Fleetwood 
had  turned  and  followed,  merely  for  the  final  curious 
peep  at  an  unexpected  vision;  he  had  noticed  the 
singular  shoot  of  thick  timber  from  the  rock,  and  the 
form  of  the  goose  neck  it  rose  to,  the  sprout  of 
branches  off  the  bill  in  the  shape  of  a  crest.  And 
now  a  shameful   spasm  of  terror  seized  him   at   sight 


152  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

of  a  girl  doing  what  lie  would  have  dreaded  to 
attempt.  She  footed  coolly,  well-balanced,  upright. 
She  seated  herself. 

And  there  let  her  be.  She  was  a  German  girl, 
apparently.  She  had  an  air  of  breeding,  something 
more  than  breeding.  German  families  of  the  nobles 
give  out,  here  and  there,  as  the  Great  War  showed 
examples  of,  intrepid  young  women,  who  have  the 
sharp  lines  of  character  to  render  them  independent 
of  the  graces.  But,  if  a  young  woman  out  alone  in 
the  woods  was  hardly  to  be  coimted  among  the  well- 
born, she  held  rank  above  them.  Her  face  and  bear- 
ing might  really  be  taken  to  symbolize  the  forest  life. 
She  was  as  individual  a  representative  as  the  Tragic 
and  Comic  masks,  and  should  be  got  to  stand  between 
them  for  sign  of  the  naturally  straight-growing  un- 
trained, a  noble  daughter  of  the  woods. 

Not  comparable  to  Henrietta  in  feminine  beauty,  she 
was  on  an  upper  plateau,  where  questions  as  to  beauty 
are  answered  by  other  than  the  shallow  aspect  of  a  girl. 
But  would  Henrietta  eclipse  her  if  they  were  side  by 
side  ?  Fleetwood  recalled  the  strange  girl's  face.  There 
was  in  it  a  savage  poignancy  in  serenity  unexampled 
among  women  —  or  modern  women.  One  might  imagine 
an  apotheosis  of  a  militant  young  princess  of  Goths  or 
Vandals,  the  gloAv  of  blessedness  awakening  her  martial 
ardours  through  the  languor  of  the  grave :  —  Woodseer 
would  comprehend  and  hit  on  the  exact  image  to  por- 


THE  PRISONER   OF   HIS   AYORD  153 

tray  lier  in  a  moment,  Fleetwood  thought,  and  longed 
for  that  fellow. 

He  walked  hurriedly  back  to  the  stunted  rock  tree. 
The  damsel  had  vanished.  He  glanced  below.  She  had 
not  fallen.  He  longed  to  tell  Woodseer  he  had  seen  a 
sort  of  Carinthia  —  a  sister,  cousin,  one  of  the  family. 
A  single  glimpse  of  her  had  raised  him  out  of  his  grov- 
elling perturbations,  cooled  and  strengthened  him,  more 
than  diverting  the  course  of  the  poison  Henrietta  in- 
fused, and  to  which  it  disgraced  him  to  be  so  subject. 
He  took  love  unmanfully;  the  passion  struck  at  his 
weakness;  in  wrath  at  the  humiliation,  if  only  to  re- 
venge himself  for  that,  he  could  be  fiendish;  he  knew 
it,  and  loathed  the  desired  fair  creature  who  caused  and 
exposed  to  him  these  cracks  in  his  nature,  whence  there 
came  a  brimstone  stench  of  the  infernal  pits.  And  he 
was  made  for  better.  Of  this  he  was  right  well  assured. 
Superior  to  station  and  to  wealth,  to  all  mundane  advan- 
tages, he  was  the  puppet  of  a  florid  puppet  girl ;  and 
he  had  slept  at  the  small  inn  of  a  village  hard  by, 
because  it  was  intolerable  to  him  to  see  the  face  that 
had  been  tearful  over  her  lover's  departure,  and  hear 
her  praises  of  the  man  she  trusted  to  keep  his  word, 
however  grievously  she  wounded  him. 

He  was  the  prisoner  of  his  word ;  —  rather  like  the 
donkeys  known  as  married  men  :  rather  more  honour- 
able than  most  of  them.  He  had  to  be  present  at  the 
ball   at  the  Schloss  and  behold  his  loathed  Henrietta, 


164  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

suffer  torture  of  chains  to  tlie  rack,  by  reason  of  Ms 
having  promised  the  bitter  coquette  he  would  be  there. 
So  hellish  did  the  misery  seem  to  him,  that  he  was 
relieved  by  the  prospect  of  lying  a  whole  day  long  in 
loneliness  with  the  sunshine  of  the  woods,  occasionally 
conjuring  up  the  antidote  face  of  the  wood-sprite  before 
he  was  to  undergo  it.  But,  as  he  was  not  by  nature  a 
dreamer,  only  dreamed  of  the  luxury  of  being  one,  he 
soon  looked  back  with  loathing  on  a  notion  of  relief 
to  come  from  the  state  of  ruminating  animal,  and 
jumped  up  and  shook  off  another  of  men's  delusions  — 
that  they  can,  if  they  have  the  heart  to  suffer  pain, 
deaden  it  with  any  semi-poetical  devices,  similar  to 
those  which  Eufus  Abrane's  "  fiddler  fellow  "  practised 
and  was  able  to  carry  out  because  he  had  no  blood. 
The  spite  of  a  present  entire  opposition  to  Woodseer's 
professed  views  made  him  exult  in  the  thought,  that 
the  mouther  of  sentences  was  likely  to  be  at  work 
stultifying  them  and  himself  in  the  halls  there  below 
during  the  day.  An  imp  of  mischief  offered  consola- 
tory sport  in  those  halls  of  the  Black  Goddess ;  already 
he  regarded  his  recent  subservience  to  the  conceited 
and  tripped  peripatetic  philosopher  as  among  the  ig- 
nominies he  had  cast  away  on  his  road  to  a  general 
contempt ;  which  is  the  position  of  a  supreme  elevation 
for  particularly  sensitive  young  men. 

Pleasure  in  the  scenery  had  gone,  and  the  wood-sprite 
was   a  flitted   vapour;    he   longed  to  be    below  there, 


THE  PRISONER   OF   HIS   WORD  155 

observing  Abrane  and  Potts  and  tlie  philosopher  con- 
founded, and  the  legible  placidity  of  Countess  Livia. 
Nevertheless,  he  hung  aloft,  feeding  where  he  could, 
impatient  of  the  solitudes,  till  night,  when,  according  to 
his  guess,  the  ladies  were  at  their  robing. 

Half  the  fun  was  over :  but  the  tale  of  it,  narrated 
in  turn  by  Abrane  and  his  Chummy  Potts  on  the  prom- 
enade, was  a  very  good  half.  The  fiddler  had  played 
for  the  countess  and  handed  her  back  her  empty 
purse,  with  a  bow  and  a  pretty  speech.  Nothing  had 
been  seen  of  him  since.  He  had  lost  all  his  own 
money  besides.  "As  of  course  he  would,"  said  Potts. 
"A  fellow  calculating  the  chances  catches  at  a  knife 
in  the  air." 

"Every  franc-piece  he  had!"  cried  Abrane.  "And 
how  could  the  jackass  expect  to  keep  his  luck  !  Flings 
off  his  old  suit  and  comes  back  here  with  a  rig  of 
German  bags  —  you  never  saw  such  a  figure!  —  Shore- 
ditch  Jew's  holiday  !  —  why,  of  course,  the  luck  wouldn't 
stand  that." 

They  confessed  ruefully  to  having  backed  him  a 
certain  distance,  notwithstanding.  "He  took  it  so 
coolly,  just  as  if  paying  for  goods  across  a  counter." 

"And  he  had  something  to  bear,  Braney,  when  you 
fell  on  him,"  said  Potts,  and  murmured  aside:  "He 
can  be  smartish.  Hears  me  call  Braney  Eufus,  and 
says  he,  like  a  fellow  —  chin  on  his  fiddle  —  'Captain 
Mountain,  Rufus  Mus'.     Not  bad,  for  a  counter.'" 


156  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

Fleetwood  glanced  round :  he  could  have  wrung 
Woodseer's  hand.  He  saw  young  Cressett  instead,  and 
hailed  him :  "  Here  you  are,  my  gallant !  You  shall 
flash  your  maiden  sword  to-night.  When  I  was  under 
your  age  by  a  long  count,  I  dealt  sanctimoniousness  a 
flick  o'  the  cheek,  and  you  shall,  and  let  'em  know 
you're  a  man.  Come  and  have  your  first  boar-hunt 
along  with  me.     Petticoats  be  hanged." 

The  boy  showed  some  recollection  of  the  lectures  of 
his  queen,  but  he  had  not  the  vocables  for  resistance 
to  an  imperative  senior  at  work  upon  sneaking  inclina- 
tions. "Promised  Lady  F.! — do  you  hear  him?" 
Fleetwood  called  to  the  couple  behind  ;  and  as  gamblers 
must  needs  be  parasites,  manly  were  the  things  they 
spoke  to  invigorate  the  youthful  plunger  and  second 
the  whim  of  their  paymaster. 

At  half-past  eleven,  the  prisoner  of  his  word  entered 
under  the  Schloss  portico,  having  vowed  to  himself  on 
the  way,  that  he  would  satisfy  the  formulas  to  gain 
release  by  a  deferential  bow  to  the  great  personages, 
and  straightway  slip  out  into  the  heavenly  starlight, 
thence  down  among  the  jolly  Parisian  and  Viennese 
Bacchanals. 


Henrietta's  letter  157 


CHAPTEE  XII 


By  tlie  first  light  of  an  autumn  morning,  Henrietta 
sat  at  her  travelling-desk,  to  shoot  a  spark  into  the 
breast  of  her  lover  with  the  story  of  the  great  event 
of  the  night.  Por  there  had  been  one,  one  of  our  big- 
gest, beyond  all  tongues  and  trumpets  and  possible 
anticipations.  Wonder  at  it  hammered  on  incredulity 
as  she  wrote  it  for  fact,  and  in  writing  had  vision  of 
her  lover's  eyes  over  the  page. 

"Monsieur  Du  Lac! 

"Grey  Dawn.  You  are  greeted.  This,  if  you  have 
been  tardy  on  the  journey  home,  will  follow  close  on 
the  heels  of  the  prowest,  I  believe  truest,  of  knights, 
and  bear  perhaps  to  his  quick  mind  some  help  to  the 
solution  he  dropped  a  hint  of  seeking. 

"  The  Ball  in  every  way  a  success.  Grand  Duke 
and  Duchess  perfect  in  courtesy,  not  a  sign  of  the 
German  morgue.  Livia  splendid.  Compared  to  Day 
and  Night.  But  the  Night  eclipses  the  Day.  A 
summer  sea  of  dancing.  WTio,  think  you,  eclipsed 
those  two  ? 

"  I  tell  you  the  very  truth  when  I  say  your  Carinthia 
did.     If  you  had  seen  her,  —  the  '  poor  dear  girl '  you 


158  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

sigh,  to  speak  of,  —  witli  the  doleful  outlook  on  her 
fortunes  :  '  portionless',  unattractive  ! '  Chillon,  she  was 
magical !  You  cannot  ever  have  seen  her  irradiated 
with  happiness.  Her  pleasure  in  the  happiness  of  all 
around  her  Avas  part  of  the  charm.  One  should  be  a 
poet  to  describe  her.  It  would  task  an  artist  to  paint 
the  rose-crystal  she  became  when  threading  her  way 
through  the  groups  to  be  presented.  This  is  not  meant 
to  say  that  she  looked  beautiful.  It  was  the  some- 
thing above  beauty  —  more  unique  and  impressive  — 
like  the  Alpine  snow-cloak  towering  up  from  the 
flowery  slopes  you  know  so  well  and  I  a  little. 

"You  choose  to  think,  is  it  Eiette  who  noticed  my 
simple  sister  so  closely  before  .  .  .  ?  for  I  suppose 
you  to  be  reading  this  letter  a  second  time  and  reflect- 
ing as  you  read.  In  the  first  place,  acquaintance  with 
her  has  revealed  that  she  is  not  the  simple  person  — 
only  in  her  manner.  Under  the  beams  of  subsequent 
events^  it  is  true  I  see  her  more  picturesquely.  But 
I  noticed  also  just  a  suspicion  of  the  ^  grenadier '  stride 
when  she  was  on  the  march  to  make  her  curtsey. 
But  Livia  had  no  cause  for  chills  and  quivers.  She 
was  not  the  very  strange  bird  requiring  explanatory 
excuses;  she  dances  excellently,  and  after  the  first 
dance,  I  noticed  she  minced  her  steps  in  the  walk  with 
her  partner.  She  catches  the  tone  readily.  If  not  the 
image  of  her  mother,  she  has  inherited  her  mother's 
bent  for  the  graces ;  she  needs  but .  a  small  amount  of 
practice. 


Henrietta's  letter  159 

"Take  my  assurance  of  that;  and  you  know  who 
has  critical  eyes.  Your  anxiety  may  rest ;  she  is  equal 
to  any  station. 

"As  expected  by  me,  my  Lord  Tyrant  appeared, 
though  late,  near  midnight.  I  saw  him  bowing  to  the 
Ducal  party.  Papa  had  led  your  ^  simple  sister '  there. 
Next  I  saw  the  Tyrant  and  Carinthia  conversing. 
Soon  they  were  dancing  together,  talking  interestedly, 
like  cheerful  comrades.  Whatever  his  faults,  he  has 
the  merit  of  being  a  man  of  his  word.  He  said  he 
would  come,  he  did  not  wish  to  come,  and  he  came. 

"His  word  binds  him  —  I  hope  not  fatally;  irrevo- 
cably, it  certainly  does.  There  is  the  charm  of  char- 
acter in  that.  His  autocrat  airs  can  be  forgiven  to 
a  man  who  so  profoundly  respects  his  word. 

"It  occurred  during  their  third  dance.  Your  Eiette 
was  not  in  the  quadrille.  0  but  she  was  a  snubbed 
young  woman  last  night!  I  refrain  —  the  examples 
are  too  minute  for  quotation. 

"A  little  later  and  he  had  vanished.  Carinthia 
Kirby  may  already  be  written  Countess  of  Fleetwood  ! 
His  hand  was  offered  and  hers  demanded  in  plain 
terms.  Her  brother  would  not  be  so  astounded  if 
he  had  seen  the  brilliant  creature  she  was  —  is,  I  could 
say ;  for  when  she  left  me  here,  to  go  to  her  bed,  she 
still  wore  the  'afterglow'.  She  tripped  over  to  me  in 
the  ball-room  to  tell  me.  I  might  doubt,  she  had  no 
doubt  whatever.     I   fancied  he  had   subjected  her   to 


160  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

some  degree  of  trifling.  He  was  in  a  mood.  His 
moods  are  known  to  me.  But  no,  he  was  precise; 
her  report  of  him  strikes  the  ear  as  credible,  in  spite 
of  the  marvel  it  insists  on  our  swallowing. 
'  '^ '  Lord  Fleetwood  has  asked  me  to  marry  him.' 
Neither  assurance  nor  bashfulness;  newspaper  print; 
and  an  undoubting  air  of  contentment. 

"Imagine  me  hearing  it. 

"  •  To  be  his  wife  ? ' 

"  '  He  said  wife.' 

"  '  And  you  replied  ? ' 

"^I  said  I  would.' 

"'Tell  me  all?' 

" '  He  said  we  were  plighted.' 

"  Now,  '  wife '  is  one  of  the  words  he  abhors ;  and 
he  loathes  the  hearing  of  a  girl  as  '  engaged.'  How- 
ever, '  plighted '  carried  a  likeness. 

"I  pressed  her:  'My  dear  Carinthia,  you  thought 
him  in  earnest  ? ' 

" '  He  was.' 

"  'How  do  you  judge  ?  ' 

"'By  his  look  when  he  spoke.' 

"  '  Not  by  his  words  ? ' 

"'I  repeat  them  to  you.' 

"  She  has  repeated  them  to  me  here  in  my  bedroom. 
There  is  no  variation.  She  remembers  every  syllable. 
He  went  so  far  as  to  urge  her  to  say  whether  she  would 
as  willingly  utter  consent  if  they  were  in  a  church 
and  a  clergyman  at  the  altar-rails. 


161 


"That  was  like  him. 

"  She  made  answer :  '  Wherever  it  may  be,  I  am 
bound,  if  I  say  yes.' 

"She  then  adds:  ^He  told  me  he  joined  hands  with 
me.' 

" '  Did  he  repeat  the  word  "  wife  "  ? ' 

"'He  said  it  twice.' 

"I  transcribe  verbatim  scrupulously.  There  cannot 
be  an  error,  Chillon.  It  seems  to  show,  that  he  has  em- 
braced the  serious  meaning  of  the  word  —  or  seriously 
embraced  the  meaning,  reads  better.  I  have  seen  his 
lips  form  'wife.' 

"  But  why  wonder  so  staringly  ?  They  both  love 
the  mountains.  Both  are  Avildish.  She  was  looking 
superb.  And  he  had  seen  her  do  a  daring  thing  on  the 
rocks  on  the  heights  in  the  early  morning,  when  she 
was  out  by  herself,  unaware  of  a  spectator,  he  not 
knowing  who  she  was ;  —  the  Fates  had  arranged  it  so. 
That  was  why  he  took  to  her  so  rapidly.  So  he  told 
her.  She  likes  being  admired.  The  preparation  for  the 
meeting  does  really  seem  'under  direction.'  She  likes 
him  too,  I  do  think.  Between  her  repetitions  of  his 
com^jliments,  she  praised  his  tone  of  voice,  his  features. 
She  is  ready  to  have  the  fullest  faith  in  the  sincerity  of 
his  offer ;  speaks  without  any  impatience  for  the  fulfil- 
ment. If  it  should  happen,  what  a  change  in  the  fort- 
unes of  a  girl !  —  of  more  than  one,  possibly. 

"Now    I    must    rest  —  'eyelids    fall.'      It    will    be 


162  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

with  a  heart  galloping.  No  rest  for  me  till  this  letter 
flies.  Good  morning  is  my  good  night  to  you,  in  a  world 
that  has  turned  over." 

Henrietta  resumes :  — 

"Livia  will  not  hear  of  it,  calls  up  all  her  pretty 
languor  to  put  it  aside.  It  is  the  same  to-day  as  last 
night.  '  Why  mention  Eussett's  nonsense  to  me  ? ' 
Carinthia  is  as  quietly  circumstantial  as  at  first.  She 
and  the  Tyrant  talked  of  her  native  home.  Very 
desirous  to  see  it!  means  to  build  a  mansion  there! 
'He  said  it  must  be  the  most  romantic  place  on 
earth.' 

"  I  suppose  I  slept.  I  woke  with  my  last  line  to 
you  on  my  lips,  and  the  great  news  thundering.  He 
named  Esslemont  and  his  favourite  —  always  uninhab- 
ited—  Cader  Argau.  She  speaks  them  correctly.  She 
has  an  unfailing  memory.  The  point  is  that  it  is  a 
memory. 

"Do  not  forget  also  —  Livia  is  affected  by  her  dis- 
taste—  that  he  is  a  gentleman.  He  plays  with  his 
nobility.  With  his  reputation  of  gentleman,  he  has 
never  been  known  to  play.  You  will  understand  the 
slightly  hypocritical  air  —  it  is  not  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance for  it  to  be  alluded  to  in  papa's  presence — I 
put  on  with  her. 

"  Yes,  I  danced  nearly  all  the  dances.  One,  a  prince- 
ling in  scarlet  imiform,  appearing  fresh  from  under 
earth,  Prussian:   a  weighty  young   Graf   in    green,   be- 


Henrietta's  letter  163 

tween  sage  and  bottle,  who  seemed  to  have  run  off  a 
tree  in  the  forest,  and  was  trimmed  with  silver  like 
dew-drops :  one  in  your  Austrian  white,  dragon  de 
BoMme,  if  I  caught  his  T'rench  rightl}^.  Others  as 
well,  a  list.  They  have  the  accomplishment.  They  are 
drilled  in  it  young,  as  girls  are,  and  so  few  English- 
men—  even  English  officers.  How  it  may  be  for 
campaigning,  you  can  pronoimce  ;  but  for  dancing,  the 
pantalon  collant  is  the  perfect  uniform.  Your  critical 
Henrietta  had  not  to  complain  of  her  partners,  in  the 
absence  of  the  one. 

"I  shall  be  haunted  by  visions  of  Chillon's  amaze- 
ment until  I  hear  or  we  meet.  I  serve  for  Carinthia's 
mouthpiece,  she  cannot  write  it,  she  says.  It  would  be 
related  in  two  copybook  lines,  if  at  all. 

^^The  amazement  over  London!  The  jewel  hand  of 
the  kingdom  gone  in  a  flash,  to  ^  a  raw  mountain  girl,' 
as  will  be  said.  I  can  hear  Lady  Endor,  Lady  Eldritch, 
Lady  Cowry.  The  reasonable  woman  should  be  Lady 
Arpington.  I  have  heard  her  speak  of  your  mother, 
seen  by  her  when  she  was  in  frocks. 

"Enter  the  ^plighted.'  Poor  Livia!  to  be  made  a 
dowager  of  by  any  but  a  damsel  of  the  family.  She  may 
well  ridicule  ^  that  nonsense  of  Russett's  last  night ' ! 
Carinthia  kisses,  embraces,  her  brother.  I  am  to  say : 
^What  Henrietta  tells  you  is  true,  Chillon.'  She  is 
contented  though  she  has  not  seen  him  again  and  has 
not  the  look  of  expecting  to  see  him.  She  still  wears 
the  kind  of  afterglow. 


164  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"  Chillon's  Viennese  waltz  was  played  by  the  band :  — 
played  a  second  time,  special  request,  conveyed  to  the 
leader  by  Prince  Ferdinand.  True,  most  true,  she 
longs  to  be  home  across  the  water.  But  be  it  admitted, 
that  to  any  one  loving  colour,  music,  chivalry,  the  Is- 
land of  Drab  is  an  exile.  Imagine,  then,  the  strange 
magnetism  drawing  her  there !  Could  warmer  proof  be 
given  ? 

"Adieu.  Livia's  ^arch-plotter'  will  weigh  the  letter 
he  reads  to  the  smallest  fraction  of  a  fraction  before 
he  moves  a  step. 

"  I  could  leave  it  and  come  to  it  again  and  add  and 
add.  I  foresee  in  Livia's  mind  a  dread  of  the  afore- 
said ^  arch,'  and  an  interdict.  So  the  letter  must  be 
closed,  sealed  and  into  the  box,  with  the  hand  I  still 
call  mine,  though  I  should  doubt  my  right  if  it  were 
contested  fervently.  I  am  singing  the  waltz. 
"  Adieu, 

"Ever  and  beyond  it, 

"Your  obedient  Queen, 

"  Henrietta. 

"P.S.  My  Lord  Tyrant  has  departed  —  as  on  other 
occasions.  The  prisoner  of  his  word  is  sure  to  take 
his  airing  before  he  presents  himself  to  redeem  it. 
His  valet  is  left  to  pay  bills,  fortunately  for  Li\T.a. 
She  entrusted  her  purse  j^esterday  to  a  man  picked 
up  on  the  road  by  my  lord,  that  he  might  play  for 
her.     Captain  Abrane  assured  her  he   had  a  star,  and 


HENRIETTA'S  LETTER  165 

Mr.  Potts  thought  him  a  ruse  compare,  an  adept  of 
those  dreadful  gambling-tables.  Why  will  she  continue 
to  play!  The  purse  was  returned  to  her,  without  so 
much  as  a  piece  of  silver  in  it;  the  man  has  flown. 
Sir  M.  Corby  says,  he  is  a  man  whose  hands  betray 
him  —  or  did  to  Sir  M. ;  expects  to  see  him  one  day 
on  the  wrong  side  of  the  criminal  bar.  He  struck  me 
as  not  being  worse  than  absurd.  He  was,  in  any  case, 
an  unfit  companion,  and  our  C.  would  help  to  rescue 
the  Eccentric  from  such  complicating  associates.  I 
see  worlds  of  good  she  may  do.  Happily,  he  is  no 
slave  of  the  vice  of  gambling;  so  she  would  not  suffer 
that  anxiety.  I  wish  it  could  be  subjoined,  that  he 
has  no  malicious  pleasure  in  misleading  others.  Livia 
is  inconsolable  over  her  pet,-  young  Lord  Cressett, 
whom  he  yesterday  induced  to  ^try  his  luck'  —  with 
the  result.  We  leave,  if  bills  are  paid,  in  two  days. 
Captain  Abrane  and  Mr.  Potts  left  this  afternoon; 
just  enough  to  carry  them  home.  Papa  and  your 
blissful  sister  out  driving.  Eiette  within  her  four 
walls  and  signing  herself, 

"The  Prisoner  of  Chillox." 


166  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 


CHAPTER  XIII 

AN    IRRUPTION    OF     MISTRESS     GOSSIP    IN    BREACH    OF 
THE    CONVENTION 

"It  is  a  dark  land/'  Carintliia  said,  on  seeing  our 
island's  lowered  clouds  in  swift  motion,  without  a 
break  of  their  folds,  above  the  sheer  white  cliffs. 

—  She  said  it,  we  know.  That  poor  child  Carin- 
thia  Jane,  when  first  she  beheld  Old  England's  shores, 
tossing  in  the  packet-boat  on  a  wild  Channel  sea,  did 
say  it  and  think  it,  for  it  is  in  the  family  that  she 
did;  and  no  wonder  that  she  should,  the  day  being 
showery  from  the  bed  of  the  sun,  after  a  frosty  three 
days,  at  the  close  of  autumn.  We  used  to  have  an 
eye  of  our  own  for  English  weather  before  printed 
Meteorological  Observations  and  Forecasts  undertook 
to  supplant  the  shepherd  and  the  poacher,  and  the 
pilot  with  his  worn  brown  leather  telescope  tucked 
beneath  his  arm.  All  three  would  have  told  you,  that 
the  end  of  a  three  days'  frost  in  the  late  season  of 
the  year  and  the  early,  is  likely  to  draw  the  warm 
winds  from  the  Atlantic  over  Cornish  Land's  End  and 
Lizard. 

Quite  by  the  chance  of  things,  Carinthia  Jane  looked 
on  the  land  of  her  father  and  mother  for  the  first 
time  under   those   conditions.      There   can  be  no  harm 


AN  IRRUPTION   OF   MISTRESS   GOSSIP  167 

in  quoting  her  remark.  Only  —  I  have  to  say  it  — 
experience  causes  apprehension,  that  we  are  again  to 
be  delayed  by  descriptions,  and  an  exposition  of  feel- 
ings; taken  for  granted,  of  course,  in  a  serious 
narrative;  which  it  really  seems  these  moderns  think 
designed  for  a  frequent  arrest  of  the  actors  in  the 
story  and  a  searching  of  the  internal  state  of  this  one 
or  that  one  of  them:  who  is  laid  out  stark  naked  and 
probed  and  expounded,  like  as  in  the  celebrated  pict- 
ure by  a  great  painter:  and  we,  thirsting  for  events 
as  we  are,  are  to  stop  to  enjoy  a  lecture  on  Anatomy. 
And  all  the  while  the  windows  of  the  lecture-room  are 
rattling,  if  not  the  whole  fabric  shaking,  with  exterior 
occurrences  or  impatience  for  them  to  come  to  pass. 
Every  explanation  is  sure  to  be  offered  by  the  course 
events  may  take;  so  do,  in  mercy,  I  say,  let  us  bide 
for  them. 

She  thought  our  island  all  the  darker  because  Henri- 
etta had  induced  her  to  talk  on  the  boat  of  her  moun- 
tain home  and  her  last  morning  there  for  the  walk 
away  with  Chillon  John.  Soon  it  was  to  appear  super- 
naturally  bright,  a  very  magician's  cave  for  brilliancy. 

Now,  this  had  happened —  and  comment  on  it  to  your- 
selves, remembering  always,  that  Chillon  John  was  a 
lover,  and  a  lover  has  his  excuses,  though  they  will  not 
obviate  the  penalties  he  may  incur;  and  dreadful  they 
were.  After  reading  Henrietta's  letter  to  him,  he  rode 
out  of  his  Canterbury  quarters  across  the  country  to  the 


168  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

borders  of  Sussex,  where  liis  Tincle  Lord  Levellier  lived, 
on  tlie  ridge  of  ironstone,  near  tlie  wild  land  of  a  forest, 
Croridge  the  name  of  the  place.  Now,  Chillon  John 
knew  his  uncle  was  miserly  and  dreaded  the  prospect  of 
having  to  support  a  niece  in  the  wretched  establishment 
at  Lekkatts,  or,  as  it  was  popularly  called,  Leancats ;  you 
can  understand  why.  But  he  managed  to  assure  himself 
he  must  in  duty  consult  with  the  senior  and  chief  mem- 
ber of  his  family  on  a  subject  of  such  importance  as  the 
proposal  of  marriage  to  his  lordship's  niece. 

The  consultation  was  short:  "  You  will  leave  it  to  me," 
his  uncle  said :  and  we  hear  of  business  affairs  between 
them,  involving  payment  of  moneys  due  to  the  young 
man ;  and  how,  whenever  he  touched  on  them,  his  uncle 
immediately  fell  back  on  the  honour  of  the  family  and 
Carinthia  Jane's  reputation,  her  good  name  to  be  vindi- 
cated, and  especially  that  there  must  be  no  delays,  to- 
gether with  as  close  a  reckoning  as  he  could  make  of  the 
value  of  Lord  Fleetwood's  estates  in  Kent  and  in  Staf- 
fordshire and  South  Wales,  and  his  house  property  in 
London. 

"He  will  have  means  to  support  her,"  said  the  old 
lord,  shrugging  as  if  at  his  own  incapacity  for  that 
burden. 

The  two  then  went  to  the  workshops  beside  a  large 
pond,  where  there  was  an  island  bordered  with  birch  trees 
and  Avorkmen's  cottages  near  the  main  building;  and 
that  was  an  arsenal  containing  every  kind  of  sword  and 


AN   IRRUPTION   OF   MISTRESS    GOSSIP  169 

lance  and  musket,  rifle  and  fowling-piece  and  pistol, 
and  more  gunpowder  than  was,  I  believe,  allowed  by  law. 
For  they  were  engaged  in  inventing  a  new  powder  for 
howitzer  shells,  of  tremendous  explosive  power. 

jSTothing  further  did  either  of  them  say  concerning  the 
marriage.  Nor  did  Carinthia  Jane  hear  any  mention  of 
Lord  Fleetwood  from  her  brother  on  the  landing-place  at 
Dover.  She  was  taken  to  Admiral  Baldwin  Fakenham's 
house  in  Hampshire;  and  there  she  remained,  the  de- 
light of  his  life,  during  two  months,  patiently  expecting 
and  rebuking  the  unmaidenliness  of  her  expectations,  as 
honest  young  women  in  her  position  used  to  do.  So  did 
they  sometimes  wait  for  years;  they  have  waited  until 
they  withered  into  the  graves,  like  the  vapours  of  a  brief 
winter^s  day ;  a  moving  picture  of  a  sex  restrained  by 
modesty  in  those  purer  times  from  the  taking  of  one  step 
forward  unless  inquired  for. 

Two  months  she  waited  in  our  ^  dark  land.'  January 
\  arrived,  and  her  brother.  Henrietta  communicated  the 
news :  — 

*'M.j  Janey,  you  are  asked  by  Lord  Fleetwood  whether 
it  is  your  wish  that  he  should  marry  you." 

Now,  usually  a  well-born  young  woman's  answer,  if  a 
willing  one,  is  an  example  of  weak  translation.  Here  it 
was  the  heart's  native  tongue,  without  any  roundabout, 
simple  but  direct. 

"Oh,  I  will,  I  am  ready,  tell  him." 

Eem  ember,  she  was  not  speaking  publicly. 


170  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

Henrietta  knew  the  man  enough,  to  be  glad  he  did  not 
hear.  She  herself  would  have  felt  a  little  shock  on  his 
behalf ;  only,  that  answer  suited  the  scheme  of  the  pair 
of  lovers. 

How  far  those  two  were  innocent  in  not  delivering  the 
whole  of  Lord  Fleetwood's  message  to  Carinthia  Jane 
through  Lord  Levellier,  we  are  unable  to  learn.  We 
may  suspect  the  miserly  nobleman  of  curtailing  it  for 
his  purposes;  and  such  is  my  idea.  But  the  answer 
would  have  been  the  same,  I  am  sure. 

In  consequence  and  straight  away,  Chillon  John  be- 
takes him  to  Admiral  Baldwin  and  informs  him  of  Lord 
Fleetwood's  proposal  on  the  night  at  Baden,  and  renewal 
of  it  through  the  mouth  of  Lord  Levellier,  not  communi- 
cating, however  (he  may  really  not  have  known),  the 
story  of  how  it  had  been  wrung  from  the  earl  by  a  sur- 
prise movement  on  the  part  of  the  one-armed  old  lord, 
who  burst  out  on  him  in  the  street  from  the  ambush  of  a 
club-window,  where  he  had  been  stationed  every  day  for 
a  fortnight,  indefatigably  to  watch  for  the  passing  of  the 
earl,  as  there  seemed  no  other  way  to  find  him.  They 
say,  indeed,  there  was  a  scene,  judging  by  the  result,  and 
it  would  have  been  an  excellent  scene  for  the  stage; 
though  the  two  noblemen  were  to  all  appearances  po- 
litely exchanging  their  remarks.  But  the  audience  hear- 
ing what  passes,  appreciates  the  courteous  restraint  of  an 
attitude  so  contrasting  with  their  tempers.  Behind  the 
ostentation  of  civility,  their  words  were  daggers. 


AN   IRRUPTION   OF  MISTRESS   GOSSIP  171 

For  it  chanced,  that  the  young  earl,  after  a  period  of 
refuge  at  his  Welsh  castle,  supposing,  as  he  well  might, 
that  his  latest  mad  freak  of  the  proposal  of  his  hand  and 
title  to  the  strange  girl  in  a  quadrille  at  a  foreign  castle 
had  been  forgotten  by  her,  and  the  risks  of  annoyance 
on  the  subject  had  quite  blown  over,  returned  to  town, 
happy  in  having  done  the  penance  for  his  impulsiveness, 
and  got  clean  again — that  is  to  say,  struck  off  his  fetters 
and  escaped  from  importunities  —  the  very  morning  of 
the  day  when  Lord  Levellier  sprang  upon  him!  It 
shows  the  old  campaigner's  shrewdness  in  guessing  where 
his  prey  would  come,  and  not  putting  him  on  his  guard 
by  a  call  at  his  house.  Out  of  the  window  he  looked  for 
all  the  hours  of  light  during  an  entire  fortnight.  "In 
the  service  of  my  sister's  child,'^  he  said.  "  To  save  him 
from  the  cost  of  maintaining  her,"  say  his  enemies.  At 
any  rate  he  did  it. 

He  was  likely  to  have  done  the  worse  which  I  suspect. 

Now,  the  imparting  of  the  wonderful  news  to  Admiral 
Baldwin  Fakenham  was,  we  read,  the  whiff  of  a  tropical 
squall  to  lay  him  on  his  beam  ends.  He  could  not  but 
doubt ;  and  his  talk  was  like  the  sails  of  a  big  ship  rat- 
tling to  the  first  puff  of  wind.  He  had  to  believe ;  and 
then,  we  read,  he  was  for  hours  like  a  vessel  rolling  in 
the  trough  of  the  sea.  Of  course  he  was  a  disappointed 
father.  Naturally  this  glance  at  the  loss  to  Henrietta 
of  the  greatest  prize  of  the  matrimonial  market  of  all 
Europe  and  America  was  vexing  and  saddening.     Then 


172  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

he  woke  up  to  think  of  the  fortunes  of  his  "other  girl," 
as  he  named  her,  and  cried :  "  Crinny  catches  him ! " 

He  cried  it  in  glee  and  rubbed  his  hands. 

So  thereupon,  standing  before  him,  Chillon  John,  from 
whom  he  had  the  news,  bent  to  him  slightly,  as  his  ele- 
gant manner  was,  and  lengthened  the  admiral's  chaps 
with  another  proposal;  easy,  deliberate,  precise,  quite 
the  respectful  bandit,  if  you  please,  determined  on  hav- 
ing his  daughter  by  all  means,  only  much  preferring  the 
legal,  formal,  and  friendly.  Upon  that,  in  the  moment 
of  indecision,  Henrietta  enters,  followed  by  Admiral 
Baldwin's  heroine,  his  Crinny,  whom  he  embraced  and 
kissed,  congratulated  and  kissed  again.  One  sees  the 
contrivance  to  soften  him. 

So  it  was  done,  down  in  that  Hampshire  household  on 
the  heights  near  the  downs,  whence  you  might  behold, 
off  a  terra  firma  resembling  a  roll  of  billows,  England's 
big  battle-ships  in  line  fronting  the  island;  when  they 
were  a  spectacle  of  beauty  as  well  as  power :  which  now 
they  are  no  more,  but  will  have  to  be,  if  they  are  both 
to  float  and  to  fight.  For  I  have  had  quoted  to  me  by  a 
great  admirer  of  the  Old  Buccaneer,  one  of  the  dark  say- 
ings in  his  Maxims  for  Men,  where  Captain  John 
Peter  Kirby  commends  his  fellow-men  to  dissatisfaction 
with  themselves  if  they  have  not  put  an  end  to  their  enemy 
handsomely.  And  he  advises  the  copying  of  ligature  in 
this ;  whose  elements  have  always,  he  says,  a  pretty, 
besides  a  thorough,  style  of  doing  it,  when  they  get  the 


AN   IRRUPTION  OF  MISTRESS   GOSSIP  173 

better  of  us ;  and  the  one  by  reason  of  the  other.  He 
instances  the  horse,  the  yacht,  and  chiefly  the  sword, 
for  proof,  that  the  handsomest  is  the  most  effective. 
And  he  prints  large :  "  ugly  is  only  half  way  to  a 
THING."  To  an  invention,  I  suppose  he  intends  to  say. 
But  looking  on  our  huge  foundering  sea-monsters  and 
the  disappearance  of  the  unwieldy  in  Nature,  and  the 
countenances  of  criminals,  who  are,  he  bids  us  observe, 
always  in  the  long  run  beaten,  I  seem  to  see  a  meaning 
our  country  might  meditate  on. 

So,  as  I  said,  it  was  done;  for  Admiral  Baldwin 
could  refuse  his  Crinny  nothing;  as  little  as  he  would 
deny  anything  to  himself,  the  heartiest  of  kindly  hosts, 
fathers,  friends.  Carinthia  Jane's  grand  good  fortune 
covered  that  pit,  the  question  of  money,  somehow,  and 
was,  we  may  conceive,  a  champagne  wine  in  their  reason- 
ing faculties.  The  admiral  was  in  debt,  Henrietta  had 
no  heritage,  Chillon  John  was  the  heir  of  a  miserly  uncle 
owing  him  sums  and  evading  every  application  for  them, 
yet  they  behaved  as  people  who  had  the  cup  of  golden 
wishes.  Perhaps  it  was  because  Henrietta  and  her  lover 
were  so  handsome  a  match  as  to  make  it  seem  to  them 
and  others  they  must  marry;  and  as  to  character,  her 
father  could  trust  her  to  the  man  of  her  choice  more 
readily  than  to  the  wealthy  young  nobleman ;  of  whose 
discreetness  he  had  not  the  highest  opinion.  He  recon- 
ciled this  view  with  his  warm  feeling  for  the  Countess 
of  Fleetwood  to  be,  by  saying  :  "  Crinny  will  tame  him  I '' 


174  THE  AJslAZmG  MARRIAGE 

His  faith,  was  in  her  dauntless  bold  spirit,  not  thinking 
of  the  animal  she  was  to  tame. 

Countess  Livia,  after  receiving  Henrietta's  letter  of 
information,  descended  on  them  and  thought  them  each 
and  all  a  crazed  set.  Love,  as  a  motive  of  action  for  a 
woman,  she  considered  the  female's  lunacy  and  suicide. 
Men  are  born  subject  to  it,  happily,  and  thus  the  bal- 
ance between  the  lordly  half  of  creation  and  the  frail  is 
rectified.  We  women  dress,  and  smile,  sigh,  if  you  like, 
to  excite  the  malady.  But  if  we  are  the  fools  to  share 
it,  we  lose  our  chance ;  instead  of  the  queens,  we  are  the 
slaves,  and  instead  of  a  life  of  pleasure,  we  pass  from 
fever  to  fever  at  a  tyrant's  caprice :  he  does  rightly  in 
despising  us.  Ay,  and  many  a  worthy  woman  thinks 
the  same.  Educated  in  dependency  as  they  are,  they 
come  to  the  idea  of  love  to  snatch  at  it  for  their  weapon 
of  the  man's  weakness.  Eor  Avhich  my  lord  calls  them 
heartless,  and  poets  are  angry  with  them,  rightly  or 
wrongly. 

It  must,  I  fear,  be  admitted  for  a  truth,  that  sorrow 
is  the  portion  of  young  women  who  give  the  full 
measure  of  love  to  the  engagement,  marrying  for  love. 
At  least.  Countess  Livia  could  declare  subsequently  she 
had  foretold  it  and  warned  her  cousin.  Not  another 
reflection  do  you  hear  from  me,  if  I  must  pay  forfeit 
of  my  privilege  to  hurry  you  on  past  descriptions  of 
places  and  anatomy  of  character  and  impertinent  talk 
about  philosophy  —  in  a  story.    "Wlien  we  are  startled 


AN   IRRUPTION   OF   MISTRESS   GOSSIP  175 

and  offended  by  the  insinuated  tracing  of  principal 
incidents  to  a  thread-bare  spot  in  the  nether  garments 
of  a  man  of  no  significance,  I  lose  patience. 

Henrietta's  case  was  a  secondary  affair.  ^Vhat  with 
her  passion  —  it  was  nothing  less  —  and  her  lover's 
cunning  arts,  and  her  father's  consent  given,  and  in 
truth  the  look  of  the  two  together,  the  dissuasion  of 
them  from  union  was  as  likely  to  keep  them  apart 
as  an  exhortation  addressed  to  magnet  and  needle. 
Countess  Livia  attacked  Carinthia  Jane  and  the  ad- 
miral backing  her.  But  the  admiral,  having  given 
his  consent  to  his  daughter's  marriage,  in  consequence 
of  the  earl's  pledged  word  to  'his  other  girl,'  had 
become  a  zealot  for  this  marriage :  and  there  was 
only  not  a  grand  altercation  on  the  subject  because 
Livia  shunned  annoyances.  Alone  with  Carinthia  Jane, 
as  she  reported  to  Henrietta,  she  spoke  to  a  block, 
that  shook  a  head  and  wore  a  thin  smile  and  nursed 
its  own  idea  of  the  better  knowledge  of  Edward 
Eussett,  Earl  of  Fleetwood,  gained  in  the  run  of  a 
silly  quadrille  at  a  ball. 

What  is  a  young  man's  word  to  his  partner  in  a 
quadrille ! 

Livia  put  the  question,  she  put  it  twice  rather 
sternly,  and  the  girl  came  out  with:  "Oh,  he  meant 
it!" 

The  nature,  the  pride,  the  shifty  and  furious  moods 
of  Lord  Fleetwood  were  painted  frightful  to  her. 


176  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

She  had  conceived  her  own  image  of  him. 

Whether  to  set  her  down  as  an  enamoured  idiot  or 
a  creature  not  a  whit  less  artful  than  her  brother,  was 
Countess  Livia's  debate.  Her  inclination  was  to  mis- 
doubt the  daughter  of  the  Old  Buccaneer:  she  might 
be  simple,  at  her  age;  and  she  certainly  was  ignorant; 
but  she  climg  to  her  prize.  Still  the  promise  was  ex- 
tracted from  her,  that  she  would  not  worry  the  earl  to 
fulfil  the  word  she  supposed  him  to  mean  in  its  full 
meaning. 

The  promise  was  unreluctantly  yielded.  No,  she 
would  not  write.  Admiral  Fakenham,  too,  engaged 
to  leave  the  matter  to  a  man  of  honour. 

Meanwhile,  Chillon  John  had  taken  a  journey  to 
Lekkatts;  following  which,  his  uncle  went  to  London. 
Lord  Fleetwood  heard  that  Miss  Kirby  kept  him  bound. 
He  was  again  the  fated  prisoner  of  his  word. 

And  following  that,  not  so  very  long,  there  was  the 
announcement  of  the  marriage  of  Chillon  John  Kirby- 
Levellier,  Lieutenant  in  the  King's  Own  Hussars, 
and  Henrietta,  daughter  of  Admiral  Baldwin  Faken- 
ham. A  county  newspaper  paragraph  was  quoted  for 
its  eulogy  of  the  Beauty  of  Hampshire  —  not  too  strong, 
those  acquainted  with  her  thought.  Interest  at  Court 
obtained  an  advancement  for  the  bridegroom :  he  was 
gazetted  Captain  during  his  honeymoon,  and  his  pros- 
pects imder  his  uncle's  name  were  considered  fair, 
though  certain  people  said  at   the  time,  it  was  likely 


AN   IRRUPTION    OF  MISTRESS   GOSSIP  177 

to  be  all  lie  would  get  while  old  Lord  Levellier  of 
Leancats  remained  in  the  flesh. 

Now,  as  it  is  good  for  those  to  tell  who  intend  pre- 
serving their  taste  for  romance  and  hate  anatomical 
lectures,  we  never  can  come  to  the  exact  motives  of 
any  extraordinary  piece  of  conduct  on  the  part  of  man 
or  woman.  Girls  are  to  read,  and  the  study  of  a  boy 
starts  from  the  monkey.  But  no  literary  surgeon  or 
chemist  shall  explain  positively  the  cause  of  the  be- 
haviour of  men  and  women  in  their  relations  together; 
and  speaking  to  rescue  my  story,  I  say  we  must  with 
due  submission  accept  the  facts.  We  are  not  a  bit 
the  worse  for  wondering  at  them.  So  it  happened  that 
Lord  Fleetwood's  reply  to  Lord  Levellier's  hammer  — 
hammer  by  post  and  messenger  at  his  door,  one  may 
call  it,  on  the  subject  of  the  celebration  of  the  mar- 
riage of  the  young  Croesus  and  Carinthia  Jane,  in  which 
there  was  demand  for  the  fixing  of  a  date  forthwith, 
was  despatched  on  the  day  when  London  had  tidings 
of  Henrietta  Fakenham's  wedding. 

The  letter,  lost  for  many  years,  turned  up  in  the 
hands  of  a  Kentish  auctioneer,  selling  it  on  behalf  of 
a  farm-serving  man,  who  had  it  from  Lord  Levellier's 
cook  and  housemaid,  among  the  things  she  brought 
him  as  her  wifely  portion  after  her  master's  death, 
and  this  she  had  not  found  salable  in  her  husband's 
village  at  her  price,  but  she  had  got  the  habit  of 
sticking  to  the  scraps,  being  proud  of  hearing  it  said 


178  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

that  she  had  skinned  Leancats  to  some  profit:  and 
her  expectation  proved  correct  after  her  own  demise, 
for  her  husband  putting  it  up  at  the  auction,  our 
relative  on  the  mother's  side,  Dr.  Glossop,  interested  in 
the  documents  and  particulars  of  the  story  as  he  was, 
had  it  knocked  down  to  him,  in  contest  with  an  agent 
of  a  London  gentleman,  going  as  high  as  two  pounds, 
ten  shillings,  for  the  sum  of  two  pounds  and  fifteen 
shillings.  Count  the  amount  that  makes  for  each  word 
of  a  letter  a  marvel  of  brevity,  considering  the  purport ! 
But  Dr.  Glossop  was  right  in  saying  he  had  it  cheap. 
The  value  of  that  letter  may  now  be  multiplied  by 
ten:  nor  for  that  sum  would  he  part  with  it. 

Thus  it  ran,  I  need  not  refer  to  it  in  Bundle  Ko.  3 : 

"  My  Lord  :  I  drive  to  your  church-door  on  the 
fourteenth  of  the  month  at  ten  a.m.,  to  keep  my 
appointment  with  Miss  C.  J.  Kirby,  if  I  do  not 
blunder  the  initials. 

<^Your  lordship's  obedient  servant, 

"  Fleetwood." 

That  letter  will  ever  be  a  treasured  family  posses- 
sion with  us. 

That  letter  was  dated  from  Lord  Fleetwood's  Kent- 
ish mansion,  Esslemont,  the  tenth  of  the  month.  He 
must  have  quitted  London  for  Esslemont,  for  change 
of  scene,  for  air,  the  moment  after  the  news  of  Henri- 
etta's marriage.     Carinthia  Jane  received  the  summons 


AN   IRRUPTION   OF   ]MISTRESS   GOSSIP  179 

without  transmission  of  the  letter  from  her  uncle  on 
the  morning  of  the  twelfth.  It  was  a  peremptory 
summons. 

Unfortunately,  Admiral  Fakenham,  a  real  knight 
and  chevalier  of  those  past  times,  would  not  let  her 
mount  the  downs  to  haA^e  her  farewell  view  of  the  big 
ships  unaccompanied  by  him;  and  partly  and  largely 
in  pure  chivalry,  no  doubt;  but  her  young  idea  of 
England's  grandeur,  as  shown  in  her  great  vessels  of 
war,  thrilled  him,  too,  and  restored  his  youthful  enthu- 
siasm for  his  noble  profession  or  made  it  effervesce. 
However  it  was,  he  rode  beside  her  and  rejoiced  to 
hear  the  young  girl's  talk  of  her  father  as  a  captain 
of  one  of  England's  thunderers,  and  of  the  cruelty  of 
that  Admiralty  to  him :  at  which  Admiral  Baldwin 
laughed,  but  had  not  the  heart  to  disagree  with  her, 
for  he  could  belabour  the  Admiralty  in  season,  cause 
or  no  cause.  Altogether  he  much  enjoyed  the  ride, 
notwithstanding  intimations  of  the  approach  of  ^his 
visitor,'  as  he  called  his  attacks  of  gout. 

Kiding  home,  however,  the  couple  passed  through  a 
heavy  rainfall,  and  the  next  day,  when  he  was  to 
drive  with  the  bride  to  Lekkatts,  gout,  the  fieriest  he 
had  ever  known,  chained  him  fast  to  his  bed.  Such 
are  the  petty  accidents  affecting  circumstances.  They 
are  the  instruments  of  Destiny. 

There  he  lay,  protesting  that  the  ceremony  could 
not  possibly  be  for  the  fourteenth,  because   Countess 


180  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Livia  had,  lie  now  remembered,  written  of  her  engage- 
ment to  meet  Rnssett  on  the  night  of  that  day  at  a 
ball  at  Mrs.  Cowper  Quillett's  place,  Canleys,  lying 
south  of  the  Surrey  hills:  a  house  famed  for  its  gath- 
erings of  beautiful  women;  whither  Lord  Fleetwood 
would  be  sure  to  engage  to  go,  the  admiral  now  said; 
and  it  racked  him  like  gout  in  his  mind,  and  perhaps 
troubled  his  conscience  about  handing  the  girl  to  such 
a  young  man.  But  he  was  lying  on  his  back,  the  post- 
ure for  memory  to  play  the  fiend  with  us,  as  we 
read  in  the  Book  of  Maxims  of  the  Old  Buccaneer. 
Admiral  Baldwin  wished  heartily  to  be  present  at  his 
Crinny's  wedding  "to  see  her  launched,"  if  wedding 
it  was  to  be,  and  he  vowed  the  date  of  the  fourteenth, 
in  Lord  Levellier's  announcement  of  it,  must  be  an 
error  and  might  be  a  month  in  advance,  and  ought  to 
be.  But  it  was  sheer  talking  and  raving  for  a  solace 
to  his  disappointment  or  his  anxiety.  He  had  to  let 
Carinthia  Jane  depart  under  the  charge  of  his  house- 
keeper, Mrs.  Carthew,  a  staid  excellent  lady,  poorly 
gifted  with  observation. 

Her  report  of  the  performance  of  the  ceremony  at 
Croridge  village  church,  a  half  mile  from  Lekkatts,  was 
highly  reassuring  to  the  anxious  old  admiral  still 
lying  on  his  back  with  memory  and  gout  at  their 
fiend's  play,  and  livid  forecasts  hovering.  He  had 
recollected  that  there  had  been  no  allusion  in  Lord 
Levellier's  message  to  settlements  or  any  lawyer's  pre- 


AN  IRRUPTION   OF  MISTRESS   GOSSIP  181 

liminaries,  and  lie  raged  at  liimself  for  having  to  own 
it  would  have  been  the  first  of  questions  on  behalf  of 
his  daughter. 

"  All  passed  off  correctly,"  Mrs.  Carthew  said.  "  The 
responses  of  the  bride  and  bridegroom  were  particularly- 
articulate." 

She  was  reserved  upon  the  question  of  the  hospitality 
of  Lekkatts.  The  place  had  entertained  her  during 
her  necessitated  residence  there,  and  honour  forbade 
her  to  smile  concordantly  at  the  rosy  admiral's  men- 
tion of  Leancats.  She  took  occasion,  however,  to 
praise  the  Earl  of  Fleetwood's  "eminently  provident 
considerateness  for  his  bride,  inasmuch  as  he  had 
packed  a  hamper  in  his  vehicle,"  which  was  a  four- 
in-hand,  driven  by  himself. 

Admiral  Baldwin  inquired :  "  Bride  inside  ?  " 

He  was  informed:  "The  Countess  of  Fleetwood  sat 
on  the  box  on  the  left  of  my  lord." 

She  had  made  no  moan  about  the  absence  of  brides- 
maids. 

"  She  appeared  too  profoundly  happy  to  meditate  an 
instant  upon  deficiencies." 

"  How  did  the  bridegroom  behave  ?  " 

"Lord  Fleetwood  was  very  methodical.  He  is  not, 
or  was  not,  voluntarily  a  talker." 

"  Blue  coat,  brass  buttons,  hot-house  flower  ?  old 
style  or  new  ?  " 

"His  lordship  wore  a  rather  low  beaver  and  a  but- 


182  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

toned  white  overcoat,  not  out  of  harmony  with  the 
bride's  plain  travelling-dress." 

"  Ah !  he's  a  good  whip,  men  say.  Keeps  first-rate 
stables,  hacks,  and  bloods.  Esslemont  hard  by  will  be 
the  place  for  their  honeymoon,  I  guess.  And  he's  a 
lucky  dog,  if  he  knows  his  luck." 

So  said  Admiral  Baldwin.  He  was  proceeding  to 
say  more,  for  he  had  a  prodigious  opinion  of  the 
young  countess  and  the  benefit  of  her  marriage  to 
the  British  race.  As  it  concerned  a  healthy  constitu- 
tion and  motherhood,  Mrs.  Carthew  coughed  and 
retired.  Kor  do  I  reprove  either  of  them.  The 
speculation  and  the  decorum  are  equally  commend- 
able. Masculine  ideas  are  one  thing;  but  let  femi- 
nine ever  be  feminine,  or  our  civilization  perishes. 

At  Croridge  village  church,  then,  —  one  of  the 
smallest  churches  in  the  kingdom, — the  ceremony  was 
performed  and  duly  witnessed,  names  written  in  the 
vestry  book,  the  clergyman's  fee,  the  clerk,  and  the 
pew-woman,  paid  by  the  bridegroom.  And  thus  we 
see  how  a  pair  of  lovers,  blind  with  the  one  object 
of  lovers  in  view;  and  a  miserly  uncle,  all  on  edge  to 
save  himself  the  expense  of  supporting  his  niece; 
and  an  idolatrous  old  admiral,  on  his  back  with 
gout;  conduced  in  turn  and  together  to  the  marriage 
gradually  exciting  the  world's  wonder,  till  it  eclipsed 
the  story  of  the  Old  Buccaneer  and  Countess  Tanny, 
which  it  caused  to  be  discussed  afresh. 


AN   IRRUPTION   OF   MISTRESS   GOSSIP  188 

Mrs.  Cartliew  remembered  Carintliia  Jane's  last 
maiden  remark  and  her  first  bridal  utterance.  On 
the  way,  walking  to  the  church  of  Croridge  from 
LekkattSj  the  girl  said:  '-'Going  on  my  feet,  I  feel  I 
continue  the  mountain  walk  with  my  brother  when 
we  left  our  home."  And  after  leaving  the  church, 
about  to  mount  the  coach,  she  turned  to  Mrs.  Carthew, 
saying,  as  she  embraced  her:  ^'A  happy  bride's  kiss 
should  bring  some  good  fortune."  And  looking  down 
from  her  place  on  the  top  of  the  coach:  "Adieu,  dear 
Mrs.  Carthew.     A  day  of  glory  it  is  to-day." 

She  must  actually  have  had  it  in  her  sight  as  a  day 
of  glory :  and  it  was  a  day  of  the  clouds  off  our  rainy 
quarter,  similar  in  every  way  to  the  day  of  her  step- 
ping on  English  soil  and  saying :  "  It  is  a  dark  land." 
For  the  heart  is  truly  declared  to  be  our  colourist.  A 
day  ha^dng  the  gale  in  its  breast,  sweeping  the  whole 
country  and  bending  the  trees  for  the  twigs  to  hiss  like 
spray  of  the  billows  around  our  island,  was  a  day  of 
golden  splendour  to  the  young  bride  of  the  Earl  of 
Fleetwood,  though  he  scarcely  addressed  one  syllable 
to  her,  and  they  sat  side  by  side  all  but  dumb,  he  like 
a  coachman  driving  an  imkno^m  lady  fare,  on  a  morn- 
ing after  a  night  when  his  wife's  tongue  may  have 
soured  him  for  the  sex. 


184  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

CHAPTER  XIV 

A    PEXDANT    OF    THE    FOREGOING 

JMention  has  been  omitted  or  forgotten  by  the  worthy- 
Dame,  in  her  vagrant  fowl's  treatment  of  a  story  she 
cannot  incubate,  will  not  relinquish,  and  may  ultimately 
addle,  that  the  bridegroom,  after  walking  with  a  dis- 
engaged arm  from  the  little  village  church  at  Croridge  to 
his  coach '  and  four  at  the  cross  of  the  roads  to  Lekkatts 
and  the  lowland,  abruptly,  and  as  one  pursuing  a 
deferential  line  of  conduct  he  had  prescribed  to  himself, 
asked  his  bride,  what  seat  she  would  prefer. 

He  shouted:    "Ines!" 

A  person  inside  the  coach  appeared  to  be  ineffectually 
roused. 

The  glass  of  the  window  dropped.  The  head  of  a  man 
emerged.  It  was  the  head  of  one  of  the  barge-faced  men 
of  the  British  Isles,  broad,  and  battered  flattish,  with 
sentinel  eyes. 

In  an  instant  the  heavy-headed  but  not  ill-looking 
fellow  was  nimble  and  jumped  from  the  coach. 

"Napping,  my  lord,"  he  said. 

Heavy  though  the  look  of  him  might  be,  his  feet  were 
light ;  they  flipped  a  bar  of  a  hornpipe  at  a  touch  of  the 
ground.  Perhaps  they  were  allowed  to  go  with  their 
instinct  for  the  dance,  that  his  master  should   have  a 


A  PENDANT  OF  THE  FOREGOING       185 

sample  of  his  wakefulness.  He  quenched  a  smirk  and 
stood  to  take  orders ;  clad  in  a  flat  blue  cap,  a  brown 
overcoat,  and  knee-breeches,  as  the  temporary  bustle  of 
his  legs  had  revealed. 

Fleetwood  heard  the  young  lady  say:  "I  would 
choose,  if  you  please,  to  sit  beside  you.'' 

He  gave  a  nod  of  enforced  assent,  glancing  at  the 
vacated  box. 

The  man  inquired :  "  A  knee  and  a  back  for  the  lady 
to  mount  up,  my  lord  ?  " 

^'  In ! "  was  the  smart  command  to  him ;  and  he  popped 
in  with  the  agility  of  his  popping  out. 

Then  Carinthia  made  reverence  to  the  grey  lean  figure 
of  her  uncle  and  kissed  Mrs.  Carthew.  She  needed  no 
help  to  mount  the  coach.  Fleetwood's  arm  was  rigidly 
extended,  and  he  did  not  visibly  wince  when  this  foreign 
girl  sprang  to  the  first  hand-grip  on  the  coach  and  said : 
"No,  my  husband,  I  can  do  it,"  unaided,  was  implied. 

Her  stride  from  the  axle  of  the  wheel  to  the  step 
higher  would  have  been  a  graceful  spectacle  on  Alpine 
crags. 

Fleetwood  swallowed  that,  too,  though  it  conjured  up 
a  mocking  recollection  of  the  Baden  woods,  and  an 
astonished  wild  donkey  preparing  himself  for  his 
harness.  A  sour  relish  of  the  irony  in  his  present 
position  sharpened  him  to  devilish  enjoyment  of  it,  as 
the  finest  form  of  loathing:  on  the  principle,  that  if 
we  find  ourselves  consigned  to  the  nether  halls,  we  do 


186  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

well  to  dance  drunkenly.  He  had  cried  for  Eomance  — 
here  it  was! 

He  raised  his  hat  to  Mrs.  Carthew  and  to  Lord 
Levellier.  Previous  to  the  ceremony,  the  two  noblemen 
had  interchanged  the  short  speech  of  mannered  duel- 
lists punctiliously  courteous  in  the  opening  act.  Their 
civility  was  maintained  at  the  termination  of  the  deadly 
work.  The  old  lord's  bosom  thanked  the  j^oung  one  for 
not  requiring  entertainment  and  a  repast;  the  young 
lord's  thanked  the  old  one  for  a  strict  military  demeanour 
at  an  execution  and  the  abstaining  from  any  nonsensical 
talk  over  the  affair. 

A  couple  of  liveried  grooms  at  the  horses'  heads  ran 
and  sprang  to  the  hinder  seats  as  soon  as  their  master 
had  taken  the  reins.  He  sounded  the  whip  caressingly : 
off  those  pretty  trotters  went. 

Mrs.  Carthew  watched  them,  waving  to  the  bride. 
She  was  on  the  present  occasion  less  than  usually  an 
acute  or  a  reflective  observer,  owing  to  her  admiration 
of  lordly  state  and  masculine  commandership ;  and 
her  thought  was :  "  She  has  indeed  made  a  brilliant 
marriage ! " 

The  lady  thought  it,  notwithstanding  an  eccentricity 
in  the  wedding  ceremony,  such  as  could  not  but  be 
noticeable.  But  very  wealthy  noblemen  were  commonly, 
perhaps  necessarily,  eccentric,  for  thus  they  proved 
themselves  egregious,  which  the  world  expected  them 
to  be. 


A  PENDANT  OF  THE  FOREGOING      187 

Lord  Levellier  sounded  loud  eulogies  of  the  illustri- 
ous driver's  team.  His  meditation,  as  lie  subsequently 
stated  to  Chillon,  was  upon  his  vanquished  antagonist's 
dexterity,  in  so  conducting  matters,  that  he  had  to  be 
taken  at  once,  with  naught  of  the  customary  preface 
and  apology  for  taking  to  himself  the  young  lady,  of 
which  a  handsome  settlement  is  the  memorial. 

We  have  to  suppose,  that  the  curious  occupant  of  the 
coach  inside  aroused  no  curiosity  in  the  pair  of  absorbed 
observers. 

Speculations  regarding  the  chances  of  a  fall  of  rain 
followed  the  coach  until  it  sank  and  the  backs  of  the 
two  liveried  grooms  closed  the  chapter  of  the  wedding ; 
introductory  to  the  honeymoon  at  Esslemont,  seven 
miles  distant  by  road,  to  the  right  of  Lekkatts.  It  was 
out  of  sight  that  the  coach  turned  to  the  left,  north- 
westward. 


CHAPTEE  XV 

OPENING   STAGE    OF    THE    HONEYMOON 

A  FAMOUS  maxim  in  the  book  of  the  Old  Buccaneer, 
treating  of  precaution,  as  "  Tlie  brave  man's  clean  con- 
science,^' with  sound  counsel  to  the  adventurous,  has 
it:  — 

"  Then  you  sail  away  into  the  tornado^  happy  as  a  sealed 
bottle  of  ripe  wine  J' 


188  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

It  sh-ould  mean,  that  brave  men  entering  the  jaws  of 
hurricanes  are  found  to  have  cheerful  hearts  in  them 
when  they  know  they  have  done  their  best.  But, 
touching  the  picture  of  happiness,  conceive  the  boun- 
teous Bacchic  spirit  in  the  devoutness  of  a  Sophocles, 
and  you  find  comparison  neighbour  closely  between  the 
sealed  wine-flask  and  the  bride,  who  is  being  driven  by 
her  husband  to  the  nest  of  the  unknown  on  her  marriage 
morn. 

Seated  beside  him,  with  bosom  at  heave  and  shut 
mouth,  in  a  strange  land,  travelling  cloud-like,  rushing 
like  the  shower-cloud  to  the  vale,  this  Carinthia,  sud- 
denly wedded,  passionately  grateful  for  humbleness 
exalted,  virginly  sensible  of  treasures  of  love  to  give, 
resembled  the  inanimate  and  most  inspiring ;  was  mind- 
less and  inexpressive,  past  memory,  beyond  the  hopes, 
a  thing  of  the  tludlled  blood  and  skylark  air,  since  she 
laid  her  hand  in  this  young  man's.  His  not  speaking 
to  her  was  accepted.  Her  blood  rather  than  recollection 
revived  their  exchanges  during  the  dance  at  Baden,  for 
assurance  that  their  likings  were  one,  their  aims  raptur- 
ously one;  that  he  was  she,  she  he,  the  two  hearts 
making  one  soul. 

Could  she  give  as  much  as  he  ?  It  was  hardly  asked. 
If  we  feel  we  can  give  our  breath  of  life,  the  strength 
of  the  feeling  fully  answers.  It  bubbles  perpetually 
from  the  depth  like  a  well-spring  in  tumult.  Two  hearts 
that  make  one  soul  do  not  separately  count  their  gifts. 


OPENING  STAGE   OF   THE   HONEYMOON  189 

For  the  rest,  her  hunger  to  admire  disposed  her  to  an 
absorbing  sentience  of  his  acts;  the  trifles,  gestures, 
manner  of  this  and  that;  which  were  seized  as  they 
flew,  and  swiftly  assimilated  to  stamp  his  personality. 
Driving  was  the  piece  of  skill  she  could  not  do.  Her 
husband's  mastery  of  the  reins  endowed  him  with  the 
beauty  of  those  harmonious  trotters  he  guided  and  kept 
to  their  pace ;  and  the  humming  rush  of  the  pace,  the 
smooth  torrent  of  the  brown  heath-knolls  and  reddish 
pits  and  hedge-lines  and  grass-flats  and  copses  pouring 
the  counterway  of  her  advance,  belonged  to  his  "wizardry. 
The  bearing  of  her  onward  was  her  abandonment  to  him. 
Delicious  as  mountain  air,  the  wind  sang ;  it  had  a  song 
of  many  voices.  Quite  as  much  as  on  the  mountains, 
there  was  the  keen,  the  blissful,  nerve-knotting  catch  of 
the  presence  of  danger  in  the  steep  descents,  taken  as  if 
swallowed,  without  swerve  or  check.  She  was  in  her 
husband's  hands.  At  times,  at  the  pitch  of  a  rapid 
shelving,  that  was  like  a  fall,  her  heart  went  down; 
and  at  the  next  throb  exalted  before  it  rose,  not  reason- 
ing why; — her  confidence  was  in  him;  she  was  his 
comrade  whatever  chanced.  Up  over  the  mountain- 
peaks  she  had  known  edged  moments,  little  heeded  in 
their  passage,  when  life  is  poised  as  a  crystal  pitcher 
on  the  head,  in  peril  of  a  step.  Then  she  had  been 
dependent  on  herself.  !N'ow  she  had  the  joy  of  trusting 
to  her  husband. 

His  hard  leftward  eye  had  view  of  her  askant,  if  he 


190  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

cared  to  see  how  she  bore  the  trial ;  and  so  relentlessly 
did  he'  take  the  slopes,  that  the  man  inside  pushed 
out  an  inquiring  pate,  the  two  grooms  tightened  arms 
across  their  chests.  Her  face  was  calmly  set,  wake- 
ful, but  un wrinkled :  the  creature  did  not  count  among 
timid  girls  —  or  among  civilized.  She  had  got  what 
she  wanted  from  her  madman  —  mad  in  his  impulses, 
mad  in  his  reading  of  honour.  She  was  the  sister  of 
Henrietta's  husband.  Henrietta  bore  the  name  she 
had  qtiitted.  Could  madness  go  beyond  the  marrying 
of  the  creature  ?  He  chafed  at  her  containment,  at 
her  courage,  her  silence,  her  withholding  the  brazen 
or  the  fawnish  look-up,  either  of  which  he  would  have 
hated. 

He,  however,  was  dragged  to  look  down.  Neither 
Gorgon  nor  Venus,  nor  a  mingling  of  them,  she  had 
the  chasm  of  the  face,  -recalling  the  face  of  his 
bondage,  seen  first  that  night  at  Baden.  It  recalled 
and  it  was  not  the  face ;  it  was  the  skull  of  the  face, 
or  the  flesh  of  the  spirit.  Occasionally  she  looked,  for 
a  twinkle  or  two,  the  creature  or  vision  she  had  been, 
as  if  to  mock  by  reminding  him.  She  was  the 
abhorred  delusion,  who  captured  him  by  his  nerves, 
ensnared  his  word  —  the  doing  of  a  foul  witch.  How 
had  it  leapt  from  his  mouth?  She  must  have  worked 
for  it.  The  word  spoken  —  she  must  have  known  it 
—  he  was  bound,  or  the  detested  Henrietta  would 
have  said:   Not  even  true  to  his  word! 


OPENING   STAGE   OF   THE   HONEYMOON  191 

To  see  her  now,  this  girl,  insisting  to  share  his 
name,  for  a  slip  of  his-  tongue,  despite  the  warning 
sent  her  through  her  uncle,  had  that  face  much  as  a 
leaden  winter  landscape  ^  pretends  to  be "  the  country 
radiant  in  colour.  She  belonged  to  the  order  of  the 
variable  animals — a  woman  indeed! — ^^ womanish  enough 
in  that.  There  are  men  who  love  Vv'omen  -r—  the  idea 
of  woman.  Woman  is  their  shepherdess  of  sheep.  He 
loved  freedom,  loathed  the  subjection  of  a  partnership; 
could  undergo  it  only  in  adoration  of  an  ineffable 
splendour.  He  had  stepped  to  the  altar  fancying  she 
might  keep  to  her  part  of  the  contract  by  appear- 
ing the  miracle  that  subdued  him.  Seen  by  light  of 
day,  this  bitter  object  beside  him  was  a  witch  without 
her  spells ;  that  is,  the  skeleton  of  the  seductive, 
ghastliest  among  horrors  and  ironies.  Let  her  have 
the  credit  of  doing  her  work  thoroughly  before  the 
exposure.  She  had  done  it.  She  might  have  '  helped 
—  such  was  the  stipulation  of  his  mad  freak  in  con- 
senting to  the  bondage  —  yes,  she  might  have  helped 
to  soften  the  sting  of  his  wound.  She  was  beside 
him  bearing  his  name,  for  the  perpetual  pouring  of 
an  acid  on  the  wound  that  vile  Henrietta  —  poisoned 
honey  of  a  girl !  —  had  dealt. 

He  glanced  down  at  his  possession: — heaven  and 
the  yawning  pit  were  the  contrast !  Poisoned  honey 
is  after  all  honey  while  you  eat  it.  Here  there  was 
nothing  but  a  rocky  bowl  of  emptiness.     And  who  was 


192  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

she  ?  Site  was  the  sister  of  Henrietta's  husband.  He 
was  expected  to  embrace  the  sister  of  Henrietta's 
husband.     Those  two  were  on  their  bridal  tour. 

This  creature  was  also  the  daughter  of  an  ancient 
impostor  and  desperado  called  the  Old  Buccaneer;  a 
distinguished  member  of  the  family  of  the  Lincoln- 
shire Kirbys,  boasting  a  present  representative  grimly 
acquitted,  men  said,  on  a  trial  for  murder.  An  eminent 
alliance !  Society  considered  the  Earl  of  Fleetwood 
wildish,  though  he  could  manage  his  affairs.  He  and 
his  lawyers  had  them  under  strict  control.  How  of 
himself  ?  The  prize  of  the  English  marriage  market 
had  taken  to  his  bosom  for  his  winsome  bride  the 
daughter  of  the  Old  Buccaneer.  He  was  to  mix  his 
blood  with  the  blood  of  the  Lincolnshire  Kirbys,  lying 
pallid  under  the  hesitating  acquittal  of  a  divided  jury. 

How  had  he  come  to  this  pass,  which  swung  him 
round  to  think  almost  regretfully  of  the  scorned  multi- 
tude of  fair  besiegers  in  the  market,  some  of  whom  had 
their  unpoetic  charms  ? 

He  w^as  renowned  and  unrivalled  as  the  man  of  stain- 
less honour:  the  one  living  man  of  his  word.  He  had 
never  broken  it  —  never  would.  There  was  his  distinc- 
tion among  the  herd.  In  that,  a  man  is  princely  above 
princes.  The  nobility  of  Edw^ard  Eussett,  Earl  of  Fleet- 
wood, surpasses  the  nobility  of  common  nobles.  But, 
by  all  that  is  holy,  he  pays  for  his  distinction. 

The  creature  beside   him  is   a  franked  issue   of  her 


OPENING   STAGE   OF   THE   HONEYMOON  193 

old  pirate  of  a  father  in  one  respect  —  nothing  frightens 
her^__, There  she  sits;  not  a  screw  of  her  brows  or  her 
lips ;  and  the  coach  rocked,  they  were  sharp  on  a  spill 
midway  of  the  last  descent.  It  rocks  again.  She 
thinks  it  scarce  worth  while  to  look  up  to  reassiu-e 
him.     She  is  looking  over  the  country. 

''  Have  you  been  used  to  driving  ?  "  he  said. 

She  replied :  "  iSTo,  it  is  new  to  me  on  a  coach.'' 

Carinthia  felt  at  once  how  wild  the  wish  or  half 
expectation  that  he  would  resume  the  glowing  com- 
munion of  the  night  v/hich  had  plighted  them. 

She  did  not  this  time  say  '^my  husband/'  still  it 
flicked  a  whip  at  his  ears. 

She  had  made  it  more  offensive,  by  so  richly  toning 
the  official  title  just  won  from  him  as  to  ring  it  on 
the  nerves ;  one  had  to  block  it  or  be  invaded.  An 
anticipation  that  it  would  certainly  recur,  haunted  every 
opening  of  her  mouth. 

Now  that  it  did  not,  he  felt  the  gap,  relieved,  and  yet 
pricked  to  imagine  a  mimicry  of  her  tones,  for  the  odd 
foreignness  of  the  word  and  the  sound.  She  had  a 
voice  of  her  own  beside  her  courage.  At  the  altar,  her 
responses  had  their  music.  No  wonder:  the  day  was 
hers.    "My  husband  "  was  a  manner  of  saying  "my  fish." 

He  spoke  very  civilly.  "Oblige  me  by  telling  me 
what  name  you  are  accustomed  to  answer  to." 

She  seemed  unaware  of  an  Arctic  husband,  and  re- 
plied:  "My  father  called  me  Carin  —  short  for  Carinthia. 


194  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

My  motlier  called  me  Janey ;  my  second  name  is  Jane. 
My  brother  Chillon  says  both..  Henrietta  calls  me 
Janey." 

The  creature  was  dead  flesh  to  goads.  But  the  name 
of  her  sister-in-law  on  her  lips  returned  the  stroke 
neatly.  She  spared  him  one  whip,  to  cut  him  with 
another. 

"  You  have  not  informed  me  which  of  these  names 
you  prefer." 

"  Oh,  my  husband,  it  is  as  you  shall  please." 

Fleetwood  smartened  the  trot  of  his  team,  and  there 
was  a  to-do  with  the  rakish  leaders. 

Fairies  of  a  malignant  humour  in  former  days  used 
to  punish  the  unhappiest  of  the  naughty  men  who  were 
not  favourites,  by  suddenly  planting  a  hump  on  their 
backs.  Off  the  bedevilled  wretches  pranced,  and  they 
kicked,  they  snorted,  whinnied,  rolled,  galloped,  outfly- 
ing  the  wind,  but  not  the  dismal  rider.  Marriage  is  our 
incubus  now.  Ko  explanation  is  offered  of  why  we  are 
afflicted ;  we  have  simply  offended,  or  some  one  absent 
has  offended,  and  we  are  handy.  The  spiteful  hag  of 
power  ties  a  wife  to  us;  perhaps  for  the  reason,  that 
we  behaved  in  the  spirit  of  a  better  time  by  being 
chivalrously  honourable.  Wives  are  just  as  inexplicable 
curses,  just  as  ineradicable  and  astonishing  as  humps 
imposed  on  shapely  backs. 

Fleetwood  lashed  his  horses  until  Carinthia's  low 
cry  of  entreaty  rose  to  surprise.     That  stung  him. 


OPENLN-G   STAGE   OF   THE   HONEYMOON  195 

"Leave  the  coackman  to  his  devices:  we  have  an 
appointment  and  must  keep  it,"  he  said. 

"  They  go  so  willingly." 

"Good  beasts,  in  their  way.'* 

"I  do  not  like  the  whip." 

"I  have  the  same  objection." 

They  were  on  the  level  of  the  vale,  going  along  a 
road  between  farms  and  mansions,  meadows  and  gar- 
den-plots and  park-palings.  A  strong  warm  wind  drove 
the  pack  of  clouds  over  the  tree-tops  and  charged  at 
the  branches.  English  scenery,  animating  air ;  a  rouse 
to  the  blood  and  the  mind.  Carinthia  did  not  ask  for 
hues.  She  had  come  to  love  of  the  dark  land  with 
the  warm  lifting  wind,  the  big  trees  and  the  hedges, 
and  the  stately  houses,  and  people  requiring  to  be 
studied,  who  mean  well  and  are  warm  somewhere  below, 
as  chimney-pots  are,  though  they  are  so  stiff. 

English  people  dislike  endearments,  she  had  found. 
It  might  be  that  her  husband  disliked  any  show  of 
fondness.  He  would  have  to  be  studied  very  much. 
He  was  not  like  others,  as  Henrietta  had  warned  her. 
From  thinking  of  him  fervidly,  she  was  already  past 
the  marvel  of  the  thought  that  she  called  him  husband. 
At  the  same  time,  a  curious  intimation,  gathered  she 
knew  not  whence,  of  the  word  ^husband'  on  a  young 
wife's  lips  as  being  a  foreign  sound  in  England,  advised 
her  to  withhold  it.     His  behaviour  was  instructing  her. 

"Are    you    weather-wise?  —  able    to    tell   when    the 


196  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

clouds  will  hold  off  or  pelt,"  he  said,  to  be  very  civil 
to  a  neighbour. 

She  collected  her  understanding,  apparently ;  treating 
a  conversational  run  of  the  tongue  as  a  question  to  be 
pondered;  and  the  horses  paid  for  it.  Ordinarily  he 
was  gentle  with  his  beasts.  He  lashed  at  her  in  his 
heart  for  perverting  the  humanest  of  men. 

"Father  was,"  she  replied. 

"Oh!   I  have  heard  of  him." 

Her  face  lightened.  "Father  had  a  great  name  in 
England." 

"The  Old  Buccaneer,  I  think." 

"I  do  not  know.  He  was  a  seaman  of  the  navy, 
like  Admiral  Fakenham  is.  Weather  at  sea,  weather 
on  the  mountains,  he  could  foretell  it  always.  He 
wrote  a  book;  I  have  a  copy  you  will  read.  It  is  a 
book  of  Maxims.  He  often  speaks  of  the  weather. 
English  weather  and  women,  he  says.  But  not  my 
mother.  My  mother  he  stood  aside  by  herself — pas 
capricieuse  ;  du  tout!  Because  she  would  be  out  in 
the  weather  and  brave  the  weather.  She  rode,  she 
swam,  best  of  any  woman.  If  she  could  have  known 
you,  what  pleasure  for  me !  Mother  learnt  to  read 
mountain  weather  from  father.  I  did  it  too.  But 
sometimes  on  the  high  fields'  upper  snows  it  is  very 
surprising.  Father  has  been  caught.  Here  the  cloud 
is  down  near  the  earth  and  the  strong  wind  keeps  the 
rain  from  falling.      How   long  the   wind   will  blow   I 


OPENING  STAGE  OF  THE  HONEYMOON    19T 

cannot  guess.  But  you  love  the  mountains.  We 
spoke  .  .  .  And  mountains'  adventures  we  both  love. 
I  will  talk  French  if  you  like,  for,  I  think,  German 
you  do  not  speak.  I  may  speak  English  better  than 
French;  but  I  am  afraid  of  my  English  with  you." 

^'  Dear  me ! "  quoth  Fleetwood,  and  he  murmured 
politely  and  curiously,  attentive  to  his  coachman  busi- 
ness. She  had  a  voice  that  clove  the  noise  of  the 
wheels,  and  she  had  a  desire  to  talk  —  that  was  evi- 
dent. Talk  of  her  father  set  her  prattling.  It  became 
clear  also  to  his  not  dishonest,  his  impressionable 
mind,  that  her  baby  English  might  be  natural.  Or 
she  was  mildly  playing  on  it,   to  give  herself  an  air. 

He  had  no  remembrance  of  such  baby  English  at 
Baden.  There,  however,  she  was  in  a  state  of  enthu- 
siasm —  the  sort  of  illuminated  transparency  they  show 
at  the  end  of  fireworks.  Mention  of  her  old  scape- 
grace of  a  father  lit  her  up  again.  The  girl  there  and 
the  girl  here  were  no  doubt  the  same.  It  could  not 
be  said  that  she  had  duped  him;  he  had  done  it  for 
himself  —  acted  on  by  a  particular  agency.  This 
creature  had  not  the  capacity  to  dupe.  He  had  armed 
a  blunt-witted  young  woman  with  his  idiocy,  and  she 
had  dealt  the  stroke;  different  in  scarce  a  degree  by 
nature  from  other  young  women  of  prey. 

But  her  look  at  times,  and  now  and  then  her  voice, 
gave  sign  that  she  counted  on  befooling  him  as  well, 
to  reconcile  him  to  his  bondage.     The  calculation  was 


198  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

excessive.  No  woman  had  done  it  yet.  Idiocy  plunged 
him  the  step  which  reawakened  understanding;  and 
to  keep  his  whole  mind  alert  on  guard  against  any 
sort  of  satisfaction  with  his  bargain,  he  frankly  re- 
ferred to  the  cause.  Not  female  arts,  but  nature's 
impulses,  it  was  his  passion  for  the  wondrous  in 
the  look  of  a  woman's  face,  the  new  morning  of  the 
idea  of  women  in  the  look,  and  the  peep  into  imagi- 
nary novel  character,  did  the  trick  of  ensla^dng  him. 
Call  it  idiocy.  Such  it  was.  Once  acknowledged,  it 
is  not  likely  to  recur.  An  implacable  reason  sits  in 
its  place,  with  a  keen  blade  for  efforts  to  carry  the 
imposture  further  afield  or  make  it  agreeable.  Yet, 
after  giving  his  word  to  Lord  Levellier,  he  had  prodded 
himself  to  think  the  burden  of  this  wild  young  woman 
might  be  absurdly  tolerable  and  a  laugh  at  the  world. 

A  solicitude  for  the  animal  was  marked  by  his 
inquiry  :     "  You  are  not  hungry  yet  ?  " 

"  Oh  no,  not  yet,"  said  she,  oddly  enlivened. 

They  had  a  hamper  and  were  independent  of  stop- 
pages for  provision,  he  informed  her.  What  more 
delightful  ?  cried  her  look,  seeing  the  first  mid-day's 
rest  and  meal  with  Chillon  on  the  walk  over  the 
mountain  from  their  empty  home. 

She  could  get  up  enthusiasm  for  a  stocked  hamper ! 
And  when  told  of  some  business  that  drew  him  to 
a  meadow  they  were  nearing,  she  said  she  would  be 
glad  to  help,  if  she  could.     "  I  learn  quickly,  I  know.'* 


OPENING   STAGE   OF   THE  HONEYMOON         199 

His  head  acquiesced.  The  daughter  of  the  Old 
Buccaneer  might  learn  the  business  quickly,  perhaps; 
a  singularly  cutting  smile  was  on  his  tight  lips,  in 
memory  of  a  desire  he  had  as  a  boy  to  join  hands 
with  an  Amazonian  damsel  and  be  out  over  the  world 
for  adventures,  comrade  and  bride  as  one.  Here  the 
creature  sat.  Life  is  the  burlesque  of  young  dreams; 
or  they  precipitate  us  on  the  roar  and  grin  of  a  rec- 
ognized beast  world. 

The  devil  possessing  him  gnawed  so  furiously  that 
a  partial  mitigation  of  the  pain  was  afforded  by  sight 
of  waving  hats  on  a  hill-rise  of  the  road.  He  flour- 
ished his  whip.  The  hats  continued  at  windmill 
work.  It  signified  brisk  news  to  him,  and  prospect 
of  glee  to  propitiate  any  number  of  devils. 

"You  will  want  a  maid  to  attend  on  you,"  he 
said. 

She  replied :  "  I  am  not  used  to  attendance  on  me. 
Henrietta's  maid  would  help.  I  did  not  want  her. 
I  had  no  maid  at  home.  I  can  do  for  myself.  Father 
and  mother  liked  me  to  be  very  independent." 

He  supposed  he  would  have  to  hear  her  spelling  her 
words  out  next. 

The  hill-top  was  gained;  twenty  paces  of  pretty 
trotting  brought  up  the  coach  beside  an  inn  porch, 
in  the  style  of  the  finish  dear  to  whips,  and  even 
imperative  upon  them,  if  they  love  their  art.  Two 
gentlemen  stood   in  the  road,  and  a  young  woman  at 


200  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

the  inn  door;  a  dark-haired  girl  of  an  anxious  counte- 
nance. Her  puckers  vanished  at  some  signal  from 
inside  the  coach. 

"All  right,  Madge;  nothing  to  fear,"  Fleetwood 
called  to  her,  and  she  curtseyed. 

He  alighted,  saying  to  her,  before  he  spoke  to  his 
friends :  "  I've  brought  him  safe ;  had  him  under 
my  eye  the  last  four  and  twenty  hours.  He'll  do  the 
trick  to-day.     You  don't  bet  ?  " 

"Oh!  my  lord,  no." 

"  Help  the  lady  down.     Out  with  you,  Ines ! " 

The  light-legged,  barge-faced  man  touched  ground 
capering.  He  was  greeted  "  Kit "  by  the  pair  of 
gentlemen,  who  shook  hands  with  him,  after  he  had 
faintly  simulated  the  challenge  to  a  jig  with  Madge. 
She  flounced  from  him,  holding  her  arms  up  to  the 
lady.  Landlord,  landlady,  and  ostler  besought  the  lady 
to  stay  for  the  fixing  of  a  ladder.  Carinthia  stepped, 
leaped,  and  entered  the  inn,  Fleetwood  remarking: 
"We  are  very  independent,  Chummy  Potts." 

"  Cordy  bally,  by  Jove ! "  Potts  cried.  But  the  moment 
after  this  disengaged  ejaculation,  he  was  taken  with  a 
bewilderment.  "  At  the  Opera  ?  "  he  questioned  of  his 
perplexity. 

"No,  sir,  not  at  the  Opera,"  Fleetwood  rejoined. 
"The  lady's  last  public  appearance  was  at  the  altar." 

"  Sort  of  a  suspicion  of  having  seen  her  somewhere. 
Left  her  husband  behind,  has  she?" 


OPENING   STAGE   OF  THE  HONEYMOON  201 

^'  You  see  :  she  has  gone  in." 

The  scoring  of  a  proposition  of  Euclid  on  the  fore- 
head of  Potts  amused  him  and  tlie  other  gentleman, 
who  was  hailed  '•'  Mallard ! "  and  cared  nothing  for 
problems  involving  the  female  of  man  when  such 
work  was  to  the  fore  as  the  pugilistic  encounter  of  the 
Earl  of  Fleetwood's  chosen  Kit  Ines,  with  Lord  Brail- 
stone's  imbeaten  and  well-Vjacked  Ben  Todds. 

Ines  had  done  pretty  things  from  the  age  of  seven- 
teen to  his  twenty-third  year.  Eemarkably  clever  things 
they  were,  to  be  called  great  in  the  annals  of  the  Ring. 
The  point,  however,  was  that  the  pockets  of  his  backers 
had  seriously  felt  his  latest  fight.  He  received  a  dog's 
licking  at  the  hands  of  Lummy  Phelps,  his  inferior  in 
skill,  fighting  two  to  one  of  the  odds ;  and  all  because  of 
his  fatal  addiction  to  the  breaking  of  Ids  trainer's  im- 
posed fast  in  liquids  on  the  night  before  the  battle. 
Eight  through  his  training,  up  to  that  hour,  the  rascal 
was  devout;  the  majority's  money  rattled  all  on  the 
snug  safe  side.  And  how  did  he  get  at  the  bottle  ? 
His  trainers  never  could  say.  But  what  made  him 
turn  himself  into  a  headlong  ass,  when  he  had  only 
to  wait  a  night  to  sit  among  friends  and  worshippers 
drinking  off  his  tumbler  upon  tumbler  with  the  honours  ? 
It  was  past  his  wits  to  explain.  Endurance  of  his  pri- 
vation had  snapped  in  him ;  or  else,  which  is  more 
likely,  this  Genius  of  the  Eing  was  tempted  by  his 
genius  on  the  summit  of  his  perfected  powers  to  believe 


202  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

the  battle  his  own,  and  celebrate  it,  as  became  a  victor 
despising  the  drubbed  antagonist. 

In  any  case,  he  drank,  and  a  minor  man  gave  him  the 
dog's  licking.  "Went  into  it  puffy,  came  out  of  it 
bunged,"  the  chronicle  resounding  over  England  ran. 
Old  England  read  of  "an  eyeless  carcase"  heroically 
stepping  up  to  time  for  three  rounds  of  mashing  punish- 
ment. If  he  had  won  the  day  after  all,  the  country 
would  have  been  electrified.  It  sympathized  on  the  side 
of  his  backers  too  much  to  do  more  than  nod  a  short 
approval  of  his  fortitude.  To  sink  with  flag  flying  is 
next  to  sinking  the  enemy.  There  was  talk  of  a  girl 
present  at  the  fight,  and  of  how  she  received  the  eyeless, 
almost  faceless,  carcase  of  her  sweetheart  Kit,  and 
carried  him  away  in  a  little  donkey-cart,  comfortably 
cushioned  to  meet  disaster.  This  petty  incident  drew  the 
attention  of  the  Earl  of  Eleetwood,  then  beginning  to  be 
known  as  the  diamond  of  uncounted  facets,  patron  of  the 
pick  of  all  departments  of  manly  activity  in  England. 

The  devotion  of  the  girl  Madge  to  her  sweetheart  was 
really  a  fine  story.  Eleetwood  touched  on  it  to  Mr. 
Mallard,  speaking  of  it  like  the  gentleman  he  could  be, 
while  Chumley  Potts  wagged  impatient  acquiescence  in 
a  romantic  episode  of  the  E-ing,  that  kept  the  talk  from 
the  hotter  theme. 

"Money's  Bank  of  England  to-day,  you- think?"  he 
interposed,  and  had  his  answer  after  Mallard  had  said : 
"The  girl's  rather  good  looking,  too." 


OPENING  STAGE   OF  THE   HONEYMOON  203 

"You  may  double  your  bets,  Chummy.  I  had  the 
fellow  to  his  tea  at  my  dinner-table  yesterday  evening; 
locked  him  in  his  bedroom,  and  had  him  up  and  out 
for  a  morning  spin  at  six.  His  trainer,  Flipper,  's  on 
the  field,  drove  from  Esslemont  at  nine,  confident  as 
trumps." 

"Deuce  of  a  good-looking  girl,"  Potts  could  now 
afford  to  say ;  and  he  sang  out :  "  Feel  fit,  lucky  dog  ?  " 

"Concert  pitch!"  was  the  declaration  of  Kit  Ines. 

"How  about  Lord  Brailstone's  man?" 

"Female  partner  in  a  quadrille,  sir." 

"Ah!"  Potts  doted  on  his  limbs  with  a  butcher's 
eye  for  prize  joints. 

"Cock-sure  has  crowed  low  by  sunset,"  Mallard 
observed. 

Fleetwood  offered  him  to  take  his  bets. 

"  You're  heavy  on  it  with  Brailstone  ?  "  said  Mallard. 

"Three  thousand." 

"I'd  back  you  for  your  luck  blindfold." 

A  ruffle  of  sourness  shot  over  the  features  of  the  earl, 
and  was  noticed  by  both  eager  betters,  who  exchanged  a 
glance. 

Potts  inspected  his  watch,  and  said  half  aloud :  "  Liver, 
ten  to  one !  That  never  meant  bad  luck  —  except  bad 
to  act  on.  We  slept  here  last  night,  you  know.  It's  a 
mile  and  a  quarter  from  the  Royal  Sovereign  to  the  field 
of  glory.  Pretty  well  time  to  start.  Brailstone  has  a 
drive  of  a  couple  of  miles.     Coaches  from  London  down 


204  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

by  this  time.  Abrane's  dead  on  Ben  Todds,  any  odds. 
Poor  old  Braney !  '  Steady  man,  Todds.'  Backs  him 
because  he's  a  'respectable  citizen/  —  don't  drink.  A 
prize-fighter  total  abstainer  has  no  spurts.  Old  Braney's 
branded  for  the  losing  side.  You  might  bet  against 
Braney  blindfold,  Mallard.  How  long  shall  you  take 
to  polish  him  off,  Kit  Ines  ?  " 

The  opponent  of  Ben  Todds  calculated. 

"Well,  sir,  steady  Benny  ought  to  be  satisfied  with 
his  dose  inj  say,  about  forty  minutes.  Maybe  he  won't 
own  to  it  before  an  hour  and  ten.  He's  got  a  proud 
English  stomach." 

"Shall  we  be  late?"  Potts  asked. 

"  Jump  in,"  Fleetwood  said  to  his  man.  "  We  may  be 
five  minutes  after  time.  Chummy.  I  had  a  longer  drive,  and 
had  to  get  married  on  the  way,  and — ah,  here  they  are!" 

"  Lady  coming  ?  " 

"I  fancy  she  sticks  to  the  coach ;  I  don't  know  her  tastes. 
Madge  must  see  her  hero  through  it,  that's  positive." 

Potts  deferred  his  astonishment  at  the  things  he  was 
hearing  and  seeing,  which  were  only  Fleetwood's  riddles. 
The  fight  and  the  bets  rang  every  other  matter  out  of  his 
head.  He  beheld  the  lady,  who  had  come  down  from 
the  coach  like  a  columbine,  mount  it  like  Bean-stalk 
Jack.  Madge  was  not  half  so  clever,  and  required  a 
hand  at  her  elbow. 

After  giving  hurried  directions  to  Eundles,  the  land- 
lord of  the  Eoyal  Sovereign,  Fleetwood  took  the  reins, 


OPENING   STAGE  OF  THE   HONEYMOON  205 

and  all  three  gentlemen  toiiched  hats  to  the  curtseying 
figure  of  Mrs.  E-undles. 

"You  have  heard,  I  dare  say  —  it's  an  English  scene," 
he  spoke,  partly  turning  his  face,  to  Carinthia;  "particu- 
larly select  to-day.  Their  Majesties  might  look  on,  as 
the  Caesars  did  in  Eome.  Pity  we  can't  persuade  them. 
They  ought  to  set  the  fashion.  Here  we  have  the  Eng- 
lish people  at  their  grandest,  in  prime  condition,  if  they 
were  not  drunk  over-night ;  and  dogged,  perfectly  awake, 
magnanimous,  all  for  fair  play ;  fine  fellows,  upon  my 
word.     A  little  blood,  of  course." 

But  the  daughter  of  the  Old  Buccaneer  would  have 
inherited  a  tenderness  for  the  sight  of  blood.  She 
should  make  a  natural  Lady  Patroness  of  England's 
National  Sports.  We  might  turn  her  to  that  purpose ; 
wander  over  England  with  a  tail  of  shouting  riff-raff; 
have  exhibitions,  join  in  them,  display  our  accomplish- 
ments ;  issue  challenges  to  fence,  shoot,  walk,  run,  box, 
in  time :  the  creature  has  muscle.  It's  one  way  of 
crowning  a  freak;  we  follow  the  direction,  since  the 
deed  done  can't  be  undone ;  and  a  precious  poetical  life, 
too !  You  may  get  as  royally  intoxicated  on  swipes  as 
on  choice  wine ;  win  a  name  for  yourself  as  the  husband 
of  such  a  wife;  a  name  in  sporting  journals  and  shilling 
biographies:  quite  a  revival  of  the  Peerage  they  have 
begun  to  rail  at ! 

"  I  would  not  wish  to  leave  you,"  said  Carinthia. 

"  You  have  chosen,"  said  Fleetwood. 


206  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 


CHAPTER  XVI 

IN  WHICH   THE    BRIDE    FROM    FOREIGN    PARTS    IS    GIVEN  A 
TASTE    OF    OLD    ENGLAND 

Cheers  at  an  open  gate  of  a  field  saluted  the  familiar 
scarlet  of  the  Earl  of  Fleetwood's  coach  in  Kentish  land. 
They  were  chorister  cheers,  the  spontaneous  ringing  out 
of  English  country  hearts  in  homage  to  the  nobleman 
who  brightened  the  heaviness  of  life  on  English  land 
with  a  spectacle  of  the  noble  art  distinguishing  their 
fathers.  He  drove  along  over  muffling  turf;  plough- 
boys  and  blue  butcher-boys,  and  smocked  old  men,  with 
an  approach  to  a  hundredweight  on  their  heels,  at  the 
trot  to  right  and  left ;  all  hoping  for  an  occasional  sight 
of  the  jewel  called  Kitty,  that  he  carried  inside.  Kitty 
was  there. 

Kitty's  eyes  are  shut.  Think  of  that :  cradled  inno- 
cence and  angels'  dreams  and  the  whole  of  the  hymn  just 
before  ding-dong-bang  on  noses  and  jaws !  That  means 
confidence  ?  Looks  like  it.  But  Kitty's  not  asleep : 
you  try  him.  He's  only  quiet  because  he  has  got  to 
undergo  great  exertion.  Last  fight  he  was  knocked  out 
of  time,  because  he  went  into  it  honest  drunk,  they  tell. 
And  the  earl  took  him  up,  to  give  him  a  chance  of  recov- 
ering his  good  name,  and  that's  Christian.  But  the  earl, 
he  knows  a  man  as  well  as  a  horse.     He's  one  to  follow. 


A  TASTE   OF   OLD  ENGLAND  207 

Go  to  a  fayte  down  at  Esslemont,  you  won't  forget 
your  day.  See  there,  lie's  brought  a  lady  on  the  top  o' 
the  coach.  That  seems  for  to  signify  he  don't  expect  it's 
going  to  be  much  of  a  bloody  business.  But  there's 
no  accounting.  Anyhow,  Broadfield  '11  have  a  name  in 
the  papers  for  Sunday  reading.  In  comes  t'other  lord's 
coach.     They've  timed  it  together  close,  they  have. 

They  were  pronounced  to  be  both  the  right  sort  of 
noblemen  for  the  country.  Lord  Brailstone's  blue 
coach  rattled  through  an  eastern  gate  to  the  corner  of 
the  thirty-acre  meadow,  where  Lord  Fleetwood  had 
drawn  up,  a  toss  from  the  ring.  The  meeting  of  the 
blue  and  scarlet  coaches  drew  forth  Old  England's 
thunders ;  and  when  the  costly  treasures  contained  in 
them  popped  out  heads,  the  moment  was  delirious. 
Kit  Ines  came  after  his  head  on  a  bound,  Ben  Todds 
was  ostentatiously  deliberate :  his  party  said  he  was 
no  dancing-master.  He  stepped  out,  grave  as  a  barge 
emerging  from  a  lock,  though  alive  to  the  hurrahs  of 
supporters  and  punctilious  in  returning  the  formal  por- 
tion of  his  rival's  too  roguish  nod.  Their  look  was 
sharp  into  the  eyes,  just  an  instant. 

Brailstone  and  Fleetwood  jumped  to  the  grass  and 
met,  talking  and  laughing,  precise  upon  points  of  busi- 
ness, otherwise  cordial :  plenipotentiaries  of  great  powers, 
whom  they  have  set  in  motion  and  bind  to  the  ceremo- 
nial opening  steps,  according  to  the  rules  of  civilized 
warfare.     They  had   a   short   colloquy  with  newspaper 


208  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

reporters  ;  —  an  absolutely  fair,  square,  upright  fight  of 
Britons  was  to  be  chronicled.  Captain  Abrane,  a  tower 
in  the  crowd,  registered  bets  whenever  he  could.  Cur- 
ricles, gigs,  carts,  pony-traps,  boys  on  ponies,  a  swarm  on 
legs,  flowed  to  the  central  point  and  huddled  there. 

Was  either  champion  born  in  Kent  ?  An  audacious 
boy  proclaimed  Kit  Ines  a  man  of  Kent.  Why,  of 
course  he  was !  and  that  was  why  the  Earl  of  Fleetwood 
backed  our  cocky  Kitty,  and  means  to  land  him  on  the 
top  of  his  profession.  Ben  Todds  was  shufiled  aside,  as 
one  of  their  Londoners,  destitute  of  coimty  savour. 

All  very  well,  but  have  a  spy  at  Benny  Todds.  Who 
looks  the  square  man  ?  And  hear  what  that  big 
gentleman  of  the  other  lord's  party  says.  A  gentleman 
of  his  height  and  weight  has  a  right  to  his  opinion. 
He's  dead  against  Kit  Ines :  it's  fists,  not  feet,  he  says, 
*11  do  it  to-day;  stamina,  he  says.  Benny  has  got  the 
stamina. 

Todds'  possession  of  the  stamina,  and  the  grand 
voice  of  Captain  Abrane,  and  the  Father  Christmas, 
roast-beef-of-Old  England,  face  of  the  umpire  declared 
to  be  on  the  side  of  Lord  Brailstone's  colour  blue,  dark- 
ened the  star  of  Kit  Ines  till  a  characteristic  piece  of 
behaviour  was  espied.  He  dashed  his  cap  into  the 
ring  and  followed  it,  with  the  lightest  of  vaults  across 
the  ropes.  There  he  was,  the  first  in  the  ring :  and  that 
stands  for  promise  of  first  blow,  first  blood,  first  flat 
knock-down,  and  last  to  cry  for   quarter.     His  pair  of 


A   TASTE   OF   OLD   ENGLAND  209 

seconds  were  soon  after  him.  Fleetwood  mounted  his 
box. 

"  Is  it  to  fight  ?  "  said  Carinthia. 

"To  see  which  is  the  master." 

"They  fight  to  see?" 

"Generally  until  one  or  the  other  can't  see.  You 
are  not  obliged  to  see  it;  you  can  be  driven  away  if 
you   wish." 

"  I  will  be  here,  if  you  are  here. " 

"  You  choose  it.  " 

Fleetwood  leaned  over  to  Chumley  Potts  on  the 
turf.     "  Abrane's   ruining  himself.  " 

Potts  frankly  hoped  that  his  friend  might  be  doing 
so.  "  Todds  is  jolly  well  backed.  He's  in  prime  condi- 
tion.    He's  the  favourite  of  the  knowing  ones." 

"  You  wouldn't  have  the  odds,  if  he  weren't." 

"No;  but  the  odds  are  like  ten  per  cent:  they  con- 
jure the  gale,  and  be  hanged,"  said  Potts;  he  swore 
at  his  betting  mania,  which  destroyed  the  pleasure  of 
the  show  he  loved. 

All  in  the  ring  were  shaking  hands.  Shots  of  a  desire 
to  question  and  comment  sped  through  Carinthia's  veins 
and  hurt  her.  She  had  gathered  that  she  spoke  foolishly 
to  her  husband's  ear,  so  she  kept  her  mouth  shut,  though 
the  unanswered  of  her  inquisitive  ignorance  in  the  strange 
land  pricked  painfully  at  her  bosom.  She  heard  the 
girl  behind  her  say :  "  Our  colours  ! "  when  the  colour 
scarlet  enwound   with   Lord   Brailstone's  blue  was  tied 


210  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

to  the  stake:  and  her  husband  nodded;  he  smiled;  he 
liked  to  hear  the  girl. 

Potts  climbed  up,  crying:  ^^ Toilet's  complete!  Now 
for  paws  out,  and  then  at  it,  my  hearties ! " 

Choice  of  corners  under  the  leaden  low  cloud  counted 
for  little.  A  signal  was  given ;  a  man  outside  the  ring 
eyed  a  watch,  raised  a  hand ;  the  two  umpires  Avere  on 
foot  in  their  places;  the  pair  of  opposing  seconds  hur- 
ried out  cheery  or  bolt-business  words  to  their  men ;  and 
the  champions  advanced  to  the  scratch.  Todds  first, 
by  the  courtesy  of  Ines,  whose  decorous  control  of  his 
legs  at  a  weighty  moment  was  rightly  read  by  his  party. 

Their  hands  grasped  firmly :  thereupon  becoming  fists 
of  a  hostile  couple  in  position.  And  simply  to  learn 
which  of  us  two  the  better  man!  Or  in  other  words, 
with  four  simple  fists  to  compass  a  patent  fact  and  stand 
it  on  the  historic  pedestal,  with  a  little  red  writing  under- 
neath:—  3^ou  never  can  patent  a  fact  without  it.  But 
mark  the  differences  of  this  kind  of  contention  from  all 
other  —  especially  the  Parliamentary:  this  is  positive, 
it  has  a  beginning  and  an  end ;  and  it  is  good-humoured 
from  beginning  to  end;  trial  of  skill,  trial  of  stamina; 
Nature  and  Art ;  Old  English ;  which  made  us  what  we 
are  ;  and  no  rancours,  no  vows  of  vengeance ;  the  beaten 
man  of  the  two  bowing  to  the  bit  of  history  he  has 
helped  to  make. 

Kittites  had  need  to  be  confident  in  the  skill  of  their 
lither   lad.     His   facer   looked   granite.     Fronting   that 


A  TASTE   OF   OLD  ENGLAND  211 

mass,  Kit  you  might  —  not  to  lash  about  for  compari- 
sons —  call  a  bundle  of  bamboo.  Ay,  but  well  knitted, 
springy,  alive  every  inch  of  him ;  crafty,  too,  as  you  will 
soon  bear  witness.  He  knows  he  has  got  his  task,  and 
he's  the  man  to  do  it. 

There  was  wary  sparring,  and  mirrors  watched  them. 

"  Bigger  fellow :  but  have  no  fear,''  the  earl  said  over 
his  shoulder  to  Madge. 

She  said  in  return :  '^  Oh,  I  don't  know,  I'm  praying." 

Kit  was  now  on  his  toes,  all  himself,  like  one  who  has 
found  the  key.  He  feinted.  Quick  as  lightning,  he 
landed  a  bolt  on  Ben's  jib,  just  at  the  toll-bar  of  the 
bridge,  between  the  eyes,  and  was  off,  out  of  reach,  elas- 
tic; Ben's  counter  fell  short  by  a  couple  of  inches. 
Cheers  for  first  blow. 

The  earl  clucked  to  Madge.  Her  gaze  at  the  ring  was 
a  sullen  intensity. 

Will  you  believe  it?  —  Ben  received  a  second  spank- 
ing cracker  on  the  spectacles-seat:  neat  indeed;  and, 
poor  payment  for  the  compliment,  he  managed  to  dig  a 
drive  at  the  ribs.  As  much  of  that  game  as  may  suit 
you,  sturdy  Ben!  But  hear  the  shout,  and  behold: 
First  blood  to  Kit  Ines  !  That  tell-tale  nose  of  old  Ben's 
has  mounted  the  Earl  of  Fleetwood's  colours,  and  all  his 
party  are  looking  Brailstone-blue. 

^'  So  far ! "  said  Fleetwood.  His  grooms  took  an  indi- 
cation: the  hamper  was  unfastened;  sandwiches  were 
handed.     Carinthia  held   one;   she  tried   to   nibble,   in 


212  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

obedience  to  her  husband's  example.  Madge  refused  a 
bite  of  food. 

Hearing  Carinthia  say  to  her :  "  I  hope  he  will  not  be 
beaten,  I  hope,  I  hope,"  she  made  answer :  "  You  are 
very  good,  miss";  and  the  young  lady  flushed. 

Gentlemen  below  were  talking  up  to  the  earl.  A 
Kentish  squire  of  an  estate  neighbouring  Esslemont 
introduced  a  Welsh  squire  he  had  driven  to  see  the  fun, 
by  the  name  of  Mr.  Owain  Wythan,  a  neighbour  of  the 
earl's  dovm  in  Wales.  Eefreshments  were  offered.  Ca- 
rinthia submissively  sipped  the  sparkling  wine,  which 
stings  the  lips  when  Ave  are  indisposed  to  it.  The  voice 
of  the  girl  Madge  rang  on  the  tightened  chords  of  her 
breast.  Madge  had  said  she  was  praying :  and  to  pray 
was  all  that  could  be  done  by  two  women.  Her  husband 
could  laugh  loudly  with  Mr.  Potts  and  the  other  gentle- 
men and  the  strangers.  He  was  quite  sure  the  man  he 
supported  would  win ;  he  might  have  means  of  knowing. 
Carinthia  clung  to  his  bare  words,  for  the  sake  of  the 
girl. 

A  roaring  peal  went  up  from  the  circle  of  combat. 
Kit  had  it  this  time.  Attacking  Ben's  peepers,  he 
was  bent  on  defending  his  own,  and  he  caught  a  body- 
blow  that  sent  him  hopping  back  to  his  pair  of  seconds, 
five  clear  hops  to  the  rear,  like  a  smashed  surge-wave 
off  the  rock.  He  was  respectful  for  the  remainder  of 
the  round.  But  hammering  at  the  system  he  had 
formed,   in   the   very   next   round,  he   dropped   from   a 


A   TASTE  OF   OLD   ENGLAND  213 

tremendous  repetition  of  the  blow,  and  lay  flat  as  a 
turbot.  The  bets  against  him  had  simultaneously  a 
see-saw  rise. 

"  Bellows,  he  appears  to  have  none,"  was  the  com- 
ment of  Chumley  Potts, 

"  Now  for  training,  Chummy !  "  said  Lord  Fleetwood. 

"  Chummy !  "  signifying  a  crow  over  Potts,  rang  out  of 
the  hollows  of  Captain  Abrane  on  Lord  Brailstone's  coach. 

Carinthia  put  a  hand  behind  her  to  Madge.  It  was 
grasped,  in  gratitude  for  sympathy  or  in  feminine 
politeness.  The  girl  murmured :  ^^  I've  seen  worse." 
She  was  not  speaking  to  ears. 

Lord  Fleetwood  sat  watch  in  hand.  "  Up,"  he  said ; 
and  as  if  hearing  him,  Kit  rose  from  the  ministering 
second's  knee.  He  walked  stiffly,  squared  after  the 
fashion  of  a  man  taught  caution.  Ben  made  play. 
They  rounded  the  ring,  giving  and  taking.  Ben 
rushed,  and  had  an  emollient ;  spouted  again  and  was 
corked ;  again,  and  received  a  neat  red  waxen  stopper. 
He  would  not  be  denied  at  Kit's  door,  found  him  at 
home  and  hugged  him.  Kit  got  himself  to  grass,  after 
a  spell  of  heavy  fibbing,  Ben's  game. 

It  did  him  no  great  harm ;  it  might  be  taken  for  an 
enlivener ;  he  was  dead  on  his  favourite  spot  the  ensu- 
ing round,  played  postman  on  it.  So  cleverly,  easily, 
dancingly,  did  he  perform  the  double  knock  and  the 
retreat,  that  Chumley  Potts  was  moved  to  forget  his 
wagers  and  exclaim :  "  Eacket-ball,  by  Jove !  " 


214  THE  AMAZING  MAKRIAGE 

"If  he  doesn't  let  the  fellow  fib  the  wind  out  of 
him,"  Mallard  addressed  his  own  crab  eyeballs. 

Lord  Fleetwood  heard  and  said  coolly :  "  Tight- 
strung.  I  kept  him  fasting  since  he  earned  his  break- 
fast. You  don't  wind  an  empty  rascal  fit  for  action. 
A  sword  through  the  lungs  won't  kill  when  there's  no 
air  in  them." 

That  was  printed  in  the  Few  Words  before  the  En- 
counter, in  the  Book  of  Maxims  for  Men-.  Carinthia, 
hearing  everything  her  husband  uttered,  burned  to 
remind  him  of  the  similarity  between  his  opinions 
and  her  father's. 

She  was  learning,  that  for  some  reason,  allusions  to 
her  father  were  not  acceptable.  She  squeezed  the 
hand  of  Madge,  and  felt  a  pressure,  like  a  scream, 
telling  her  the  girl's  heart  was  with  the  fight  beneath 
them.  She  thought  it  natural  for  her.  She  wished 
she  could  continue  looking  as  intently.  She  looked 
because  her  husband  looked.  The  dark  hills  and 
clouds  curtaining  the  run  of  the  stretch  of  fields  re- 
lieved her  sight. 

The  clouds  went  their  way;  the  hills  were  solid, 
but  like  a  blue  smoke ;  the  scene  here  made  them  very 
distant  and  strange.  Those  two  men  were  still  hitting, 
not  hating  one  another;  only  to  gratify  a  number  of 
unintelligible  people  and  win  a  success.  But  the  earth 
and  sky  seemed  to  say.  What  is  the  glory  ?  They 
were  insensible  to  it,  as  they  are  not  —  they  are  never 


A   TASTE   OF    OLD   ENGLAND  215 

insensible  to  noble  grounds  of  strife.  They  bless  the 
spot,  they  light  lamps  on  it ;  they  put  it  into  books 
of  history,  make  it  holy,  if  the  cause  was  a  noble 
one  or  a  good  one. 

Or  supposing  both  those  men  loved  the  girl,  who  loved 
one  of  them !  Then  would  Carinthia  be  less  reluctantly 
interested  in  their  blows. 

Her  infant  logic  stumbled  on  for  a  reason  while  she 
repressed  the  torture  the  scene  was  becoming,  as  though 
a  reason  could  be  found  by  her  submissive  observation 
of  it.  And  she  was  right  in  believing  that  a  reason 
for  the  scene  must  or  should  exist.  Only,  like  other 
bewildered  instinctive  believers,  she  could  not  summon 
the  great  universe  or  a  life's  experience  to  unfold  it. 
Her  one  consolation  was  in  squeezing  the  hand  of  the 
girl  from  time  to  time. 

jSTot  stealthily  done,  it  was  not  objected  to  by  the 
husband  whose  eye  was  on  all.  But  the  persistence  in 
doing  it,  sank  her  from  the  benignity  of  her  station  to 
the  girl's  level :  it  was  conduct  much  too  raw,  and 
grated  on  the  deed  of  the  man  who  had  given  her  his 
name. 

Madge  pleased  him  better.  She  had  the  right  to 
be  excited,  and  she  was  very  little  demonstrative. 
She  had  —  well,  in  justice,  the  couple  of  them  had, 
only  she  had  it  more  —  the  tone  of  the  women  who 
can  be  screwed  to  witness  a  spill  of  blood,  peculiarly 
catching    to    hear  —  a  tone   of    every   string    in    them 


216  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

snapped  except  the  silver  string.  Catcliing  to  hear? 
It  is  worth,  a  stretching  of  them  on  the  rack  to  hear 
that  low  buzz-hum  of  their  inner  breast  ...  By 
Heaven!  we  have  them  at  their  best  when  they  sing 
that  note. 

His  watch  was  near  an  hour  of  the  contest,  and 
Brailstone's  man  had  scored  first  knock-down  blow,  a 
particularly  clean  floorer.  Thinking  of  that,  he  was 
cheered  by  hearing  Chummy  Potts,  whose  opinions  he 
despised,  cry  out  to  Abrane:  — 

"  Yeast  to  him ! "  For  the  face  of  Todds  was  vis- 
ibly swelling  to  the  ripest  of  plums  from  Kit's  deliv- 
eries. Down  he  went.  He  had  the  sturdy  legs  which 
are  no  legs  to  a  clean  blow.  Odds  were  offered  against 
him. 

"Oh!  pretty  play  with  your  right,  Kit!"  exclaimed 
Mallard,  as  Kit  fetched  •  his  man  an  ugly  stroke  on  the 
round  of  the  waist  behind,  and  the  crowd  sent  up  the 
name  of  the  great  organs  affected :  a  sickener  of  a 
stroke,  if  dealt  soundly.  It  meant  more  than  it 
showed.  Kit  was  now  for  taking  liberties.  Light  as 
ever  on  his  pins,  he  now  and  then  varied  his  atten- 
tions to  the  yeasty  part,  delivering  a  wakener  in  unex- 
pected quarters :  masterly  as  the  skilled  cook's  carving 
of  a  joint   with  hungry  guests  for  admirers. 

"Eh,  Madge?"  the  earl  said. 

She  kept  her  sight  fixed,  replying  :  "  Yes,  I  think  ..." 
Carinthia  joined  with  her:  "I  must  believe  it  that  he 


A  TASTE   OF   OLD   ENGLAND  217 

will :  but  will  the  other  man,  poor  man,  submit  ?  I 
entreat  him  to  put  away  his  pride.  It  is  his  —  oh, 
poor  man ! " 

Ben  was  having  it  hot  and  fast  on  a  torso  physiognomy. 

The  voices  of  these  alien  women  thrilled  the  fray 
and  were  a  Bardic  harp  to  Lord  Fleetwood. 

He  dropped  a  pleasant  word  on  the  heads  in  the 
curricle. 

Mr.  Owain  Wythan  looked  up.  "AVorthy  of  The- 
ocritus. It's  the  Boxing  Twin  and  the  Bembrycian 
giant.     The  style  of  each.     To  the  letter ! " 

"Kit  is  assiduously  fastening  Ben's  blinkers,"  Potts 
remarked. 

He  explained  to  the  incomprehensible  lady  he  fan- 
cied he  had  somewhere  seen,  that  the  battle  might  be 
known  as  near  the  finish  by  the  behaviour  on  board 
Lord  Brailstone's  coach. 

"It's  like  Foreign  Affairs  and  the  Stock  Exchange," 
he  said  to  the  more  intelligent  males.  "If  I  want  to 
know  exactly  how  the  country  stands,  I  turn  to  the 
Money  Article  in  the  paj)ers.  That's  a  barometrical 
certainty.  'So  use  inquiring  abroad.  Look  at  old 
Eufus  Abrane.  I  see  the  state  of  the  fight  on  the  old 
fellow's  mug.     He  hasn't  a  bet  left  in  him ! " 

"  Captain  Mountain  —  Ruf  us  Mus  !  "  cried  Lord  Fleet- 
wood and  laughed  at  the  penetrative  portrait  Wood- 
seer's  epigram  sketched ;  he  had  a  desire  for  the 
presence  of  the  singular  vagabond. 


218  THE  AMAZING  IVIARRIAGE 

The  Eufus  Mus  in  the  CaiDtain  Mountain  exposed 
his  view  of  the  encounter,  by  growing  stiller,  appar- 
ently growing  smaller,  without  a  squeak,  like  the 
entrapped;  and  profoundly  contemplative,  after  the 
style  of  the  absolutely  detached,  who  foresee  the  fatal 
crash,  and  are  calculating,  far  ahead  of  events,  the 
means  for  meeting  their  personal  losses. 

The  close  of  the  battle  was  on  the  visage  of  Rufus 
Abrane  fifteen  minutes  before  that  Elgin  marble  under 
red  paint  in  the  ring  sat  on  the  knee  of  a  succouring 
seconder,  mopped,  rubbed,  dram-primed,  puppy-peeping, 
inconsolably  comforted,  preparatory  to  the  resumption 
of  the  great-coat  he  had  so  hopefully  cast  from  his 
shoidders.  Not  downcast,  by  any  means.  Like  an  old 
Eoman,  the  man  of  the  sheer  hulk  with  purple  eye- 
mounds  found  his  legs  to  do  the  manful  thing,  show 
that  there  was  no  bad  blood,  stand  equal  to  all  forms. 
Ben  Todds,  if  ever  man  in  Old  England,  looked  the 
picture  you  might  label  'Bellyful,'  it  was  remarked. 
Kit  Ines  had  an  appearance  of  springy  readiness  to  lead 
off  again.  So  they  faced  on  the  opening  step  of  their 
march  into  English  History. 

Vanquisher  and  vanquished  shook  hands,  engaged 
in  a  parting  rally  of  good-humoured  banter ;  the  beaten 
man  said  his  handsome  word;  the  best  man  capped  it 
with  a  compliment  to  him.  They  drink  of  different 
cups  to-day.  Both  will  drink  of  one  cup  in  the  day  to 
come.     But  the  day  went  too  clearly  to  crown  the  light 


A   SHADOW   CONTEST  219 

and  the  tiglit  and  the  right  man  of  the  two,  for  moral- 
izing to  wag  its  tail  at  the  end.  Oldsters  and  young- 
sters agreed  to  that.  Science  had  done  it :  happy  the 
backers  of  Science  !  Not  one  of  them  alluded  to  the 
philosophical  ^lundred  years  hence.'  For  when  Eng- 
land, thanks  to  a  spirited  pair  of  our  young  noblemen, 
has  exhibited  one  of  her  characteristic  performances 
consummately,  Philosophy  is  bidden  fly;  she  is  a 
foreign  bird. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

RECORDS  A  SHADOW    CONTEST    CLOSE    ON"   THE   FOREGOING 

Kit  Ines  cocked^  an  eye  at  Madge,  in  the  midst  of 
the  congratulations  and  the  paeans  pumping  his  arms. 
As  he  had  been  little  mauled,  he  could  present  a  face 
to  her,  expecting  a  wreath  of  smiles  for  the  victor. 

What  are  we  to  think  of  the  contrarious  young  woman 
who,  when  he  lay  beaten,  drove  him  off  the  field  and 
was  all  tenderness  and  devotion  ?  She  bobbed  her  head, 
hardly  more  than  a  trifle  pleased,  one  might  say. 
Just  like  females.  They're  riddles,  not  worth  spell- 
ing. Then,  drunk  I'll  get  to-night,  my  pretty  dear! 
the  man  muttered,  soured  by  her  importune  staidness,  as 
an  opponent's  bruisings  could  never   have  rendered  him. 

She  smiled  a  lively  beam  in  answer  to  the  earl ;  "  Oh 
yes,  I'm  glad.     It's  your  doing,  my  lord."     Him  it  was 


220  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

that  she  thanked,  aud  for  the  moment  prized  most. 
The  female  riddle  is  hard  to  read,  because  it  is  com- 
pounded of  sensations,  and  they  rouse  and  appeal  to 
the  similar  cockatrices  in  us,  which  either  hiss  back  or 
coil  upon  themselves.  She  admired  Kit  Ines  for  his 
valour :  she  hated  that  ruinous  and  besotting  drink. 
It  flung  skeletons  of  a  married  couple  on  the  wall  of 
the  future.  Nevertheless  her  love  had  been  all  maternal 
to  him  when  he  lay  chastized  and  disgraced  on  accoimt 
of  his  vice.  Pity  had  done  it.  Pity  not  being  stirred, 
her  admiration  of  the  hero  declared  victorious,  whose 
fortunes  in  uncertainty  had  stopped  the  beating  of  her 
heart,  was  eclipsed  by  gratitude  toward  his  preserver, 
and  a  sentiment  eclipsed  becomes  temporarily  coldish, 
against  our  wish  and  our  efforts,  in  a  way  to  astonish ; 
making  her  think  that  she  cannot  hold  two  sentiments 
at  a  time ;  when  it  is  but  the  fact  that  she  is  unable 
to  keep  the  two  equally  warm. 

Carinthia  said  to  her :  "  He  is  brave." 

"  Oh  yes,  he's  brave,"  Madge  assented. 

Lord  Brailstone,  flourishing  his  whip,  cried  out :  "  At 
Canleys  to-night  ?  " 

The  earl  nodded :  "  I  shall  be  there." 

"  You,  too.  Chummy  ?  "  came  from  Abrane. 

"To  see  you  dance,"  Potts  rejoined,  and  mumbled: 
"  But  will  he  dance !  Old  Braney's  down  on  his  luck ; 
he's  a  specimen  of  a  fellow  emptier  and  not  lighter. 
And  won't  be  till  supper-time.     But,  I  say,  Fleet,  how 


A   SHADOW   CONTEST  221 

the  deuce?  —  funny  sort  of  proceeding!  —  You  haven't 
introduced  me." 

"The  lady  bears  my  name,  Mr.  Chumley  Potts." 

With  a  bow  to  the  lady's  profile  and  a  mention  of  a 
glimpse  at  Baden,  Potts  ejaculated:  "It  happened  this 
morning  ?  " 

"You  allude  to  the  marriage.  It  happened  this 
morning." 

"  How  do  I  get  to  Canley s  ?  " 

"I  drive  you.  Another  team  from  the  Esslemont 
stables  is  waiting  at  the  Eoyal." 

"  You  stay  at  Canleys  ?  '^ 

"No." 

"  No  ?  Oh !  Funny,  upon  my  word.  Though  I  don't 
know"  why  not  —  except  that  people  .  .  ." 

"'  Count  your  winnings,  Chummy." 

Fleetwood  remarked  to  his  bride :  "  Our  friend  has 
the  habit  of  soliloquizing  in  company.  I  forgot  to  tell 
you  of  an  appointment  of  mine  at  a  place  called  Can- 
le^-s,  about  twenty  miles  or  more  from  here.  I  gave  my 
word,  so  I  keep  it.  The  landlady  at  the  inn,  Mrs.  Run- 
dies,  motherly  kind  of  woman;  she  will  be  attentive. 
They  don't  cook  badly,  for  an  English  inn,  I  have  heard. 
Madge  here  will  act  as  your  lady's-maid  for  the  time. 
You  will  find  her  serviceable ;  she's  a  bruiser's  lass  and 
something  above  it.  —  Ines  informed  me,  Madge,  you 
were  going  to  friends  of  yours  at  the  Wells.  You  will 
stay  at  the  Eoyal  and  wait  on  this  lady,  who  bears  my 


222  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

name.  You  understand  ?  —  A  girl  I  can  trust  for  cour- 
age, if  tlie  article  is  in  request/'  lie  resumed  to  Ms 
bride ;  and  talked  generally  of  the  inn  and  the  manage- 
ment of  it,  and  its  favoured  position  outside  the 
village  and  contiguous  to  the  river,  upon  which  it 
subsisted. 

Carinthia  had  heard.  She  was  more  than  ever  the 
stunned  young  woman  she  had  been  since  her  mounting 
of  the  coach,  between  the  village  church  and  Lekkatts. 

She  said  not  a  word.  Why  should  she  ?  —  her  object 
was  won.  Give  her  that,  and  a  woman's  tongue  will 
consent  to  rest.  The  dreaded  weapon  rests  also  when 
she  is  kept  spinning  by  the  whip.  She  gives  out  a 
pleasant  hum,  too.  Her  complexion  must  be  pronounced 
dull  in  repose.  A  bride  on  her  travels  with  an  aspect  of 
wet  chalk,  rather  helps  to  scare  mankind  from  marriage : 
which  may  be  good  or  bad;  but  she  reflects  a  sicklier 
hue  on  the  captured  Chessman  calling  her  his  own.  Let 
her  shine  in  privacy. 

^Fleetwood  drew  up  at  the  Eoyal  Sovereign,  whereof 
the  reigning  monarch,  in  blue  uniform  on  the  sign- 
board, curtseyed  to  his  equally  windy  subjects;  and 
a  small  congregation  of  the  aged,  and  some  cripples 
and  infants,  greeted  the  patron  of  Old  England's 
manfullest  display,  cheering  at  news  of  the  fight, 
brought  them  by  many  little  runners. 

"Your  box  has  been  conveyed  to  your  room,"  he 
said  to  his  bride. 


A  SHADOW   CONTEST  223 

She  bowed.  This  time  she  descended  the  coach  by 
the  aid  of  the  ladder. 

Ines,  victorious  in  battle,  had  scant  notice  from 
his  love.  "Yes,  I'm  glad,"  and  she  passed  him  to 
follow  her  newly  constituted  mistress.  His  pride  was 
dashed,  all  the  foam  of  the  first  draw  on  the  top 
of  him  blown"  off,  as  he  figuratively  explained  the 
cause  of  his  gloom  to  the  earl.  "I  drink  and  I  gets 
a  licking  —  that  girl  nurses  and  cossets  me.  I  don't 
drink  and  I  whops  my  man  —  she  shows  me  her  back. 
Ain't  it  encouragement,  my  lord  ?  " 

"You  ought  to  know  them  by  this  time,  you  dolt," 
returned  his  patron,  and  complimented  him  on  his 
bearing  in  the  fight.  "  You  shall  have  your  two 
hundred,  and  something  will  be  added.  Hold  handy 
here  till  I  mount.     I  start  in  ten  minutes." 

Whether  to  speak  a  polite  adieu  to  the  bride, 
whose  absurd  position  she  had  brought  on  her  own 
head,  was  debated  for  half  a  minute.  He  considered 
that  the  wet  chalk-quarry  of  a  beauty  had  at  all  events 
the  merit  of  not  being  a  creature  to  make  scenes.  He 
went  up  to  the  sitting-room.  If  she  was  not  there, 
he  would  leave  his  excuses. 

She  was  there,  and  seated;  neither  crying,  nor 
smiling,  nor  pointedly  serious  in  any  way,  not  con- 
ventionally at  her  ease  either.  And  so  clearly  was 
he  impressed  by  her  transparency  in  simplicity  of 
expression,   that    he    took   without  a  spurn   at   it   the 


224  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

picture  of  a  woman  half  drained  of  her  blood,  veiling 
the  wound.  And  a  young  woman,  a  stranger  to  suf- 
fering :  perhaps  —  as  the  creatures  do  —  looking  for  the 
usual  flummery  tenderness,  what  they  call  happiness; 
wondering  at  the  absence  of  it  and  the  shifty  ghost 
of  a  husband  she  has  got  by  floundering  into  the  bog 
kno^vn  as  Marriage.  She  would  have  it,  and  here 
she  was ! 

He  entered  the  situation  and  was  possessed  by  the 
shivering  delicacy  of  it.  Surface  emotions  were  not 
seen  on  her.  She  might  be  a  creature  with  a  soul. 
Here  and  there  the  thing  has  been  found  in  women. 
It  is  priceless  when  found,  and  she  could  not  be  acting. 
One  migh|;  swear  the  creature  had  no  power  to  act. 

She  spoke  without  offence,  the  simplest  of  words, 
affected  no  solicitudes,  put  on  no  gilt  smiles,  wore 
no  reproaches :  spoke  to  him  as  if  so  it  happened  — 
he  had  necessarily  a  journey  to  perform.  One  could 
see  all  the  Avhile  big  drops  falling  from  the  wound 
within.  One  could  hear  it  in  her  voice.  Imagine  a 
crack  of  the  string  at  the  bow's  deep  stress.  Or  imagine 
the  bow  paralyzed  at  the  moment  of  the  deepest 
sounding.  And  yet  the  voice  did  not  waver.  She 
had  now  the  richness  of  tone  carrying  on  a  music 
through  silence. 

Well,  then,  at  least,  he  had  not  been  the  utterly  duped 
fool  he  thought  himself  since  the  consent  was  pledged 
to  wed  her. 


A  SHADOW   CONTEST  225 


More,  slie  had  beauty  —  of  its  kind.  Or  splendour 
or  grandeur,  was  tlie  term  for  it.  But  it  bore  no 
name.  None  of  lier  qualities  —  if  they  were  qualities 
—  had  a  name.  She  stood  with  a  dignity  that  the 
word  did  not  express.  She  endured  meekly,  when 
there  was  no  meekness.  Pain  breathed  out  of  her, 
and  not  a  sign  of  pain  was  visible.  She  had,  under 
his  present  observation  of  her,  beauty,  with  the  lines 
of  her  face  breaking  in  revolt  from  beauty  —  or  re- 
quiring a  superterrestrial  illumination  to  show  the 
harmony.  He,  as  he  now  saw,  had  erred  grossly  in 
supposing  her  insensitive,  and  therefore  slow  of  a 
woman's  understanding.  She  drew  the  breath  of  pain 
through  the  lips:  red  lips  and  well  cut.  Her  brown 
eyes  were  tearless,  not  alluring,  or  beseeching  or  re- 
pelling; they  did  but  look,  much  like  the  skies 
opening  high  aloof  on  a  wreck  of  storm.  Her  red- 
dish hair  —  chestnut,  if  you  will  —  let  fall  a  skein 
over  one  of  the  rugged  brows,  and  softened  the 
ruggedness  by  making  it  wilder,  as  if  a  great  bird 
were  winging  across  a  shoulder  of  the  mountain 
ridges.  Conceived  of  the  mountains,  built  in  their 
image,  the  face  partook  alternately  of  mountain  ter- 
ror or  splendour;  wholly,  he  remembered,  of  the 
splendour  when  her  blood  ran  warm.  No  longer  the 
chalk-quarry  face,  —  its  paleness  now  was  that  of 
night  Alps  beneath  a  moon  chasing  the  shadows. 

She  might  be  casting  her  spells  again. 

Q 


226  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"You  remember  I  told  you,"  he  said,  "I  have 
given  my  word  —  I  don't  break  it  —  to  be  at  a 
Ball.  Your  uncle  was  urgent  to  have  the  cere- 
mony over.  These  clashes  occur.  The  people  here  —  I 
have  spoken  of  that :  people  of  good  repute  for  atten- 
tion to  guests.  I  am  uncertain  of  the  time  ...  we 
have  all  to  learn  to  wait.  So  then,  good-bye  till  we 
meet." 

He  was  experiencing  a  novel  nip  of  torment,  of 
just  the  degree  which  takes  a  partial  appeasement 
from  the  inflicting  of  it,  and  calls  up  a  loathed 
compassion.  She  might  have  been  in  his  arms  for 
a  step,  though  she  would  not  have  been  the  better 
loved. 

He  was  allowed  his  escape,  bearing  with  him 
enough  of  husband  to  execrate  another  enslaving 
pledge  of  his  word,  that  begat  a  frenzy  to  wreak 
some  caresses  on  the  creature's  intolerably  haunting 
image.  Of  course,  he  could  not  return  to  her.  How 
would  she  receive  him?  There  was  no  salt  in  the 
thought  of  it ;  she  was  too  submissive. 

However,  there  would  be  fun  with  Chummy  Potts 
on  the  drive  to  Canleys;  fun  with  Eufus  Abrane  at 
Mrs.  Cowper  Quillet's ;  and  with  the  Countess  Livia, 
smothered,  struggling,  fighting  for  life  "vvith  the  title 
of  Dowager.  A  desire  for  unbridled  fun  had  hold  of 
him:  any  amount  of  it,  to  excess  in  any  direction. 
And  through  this  cloud,  as   a  dry  tongue  after   much 


A   SHADOW   CONTEST  227 

wine  craves  water,  glimpses  of  his  tramp's  walk  with 
a  fellow-tramp  on  a  different  road,  enjoying  strangely 
healthy  vagabond  sensations  and  vast  ideas,  brought  the 
vagrant  philosopher  refreshfully  to  his  mind:  chiefly 
for  the  reason  that  while  in  Woodseer's  company  he 
had  hardly  suffered  a  stroke  of  pain  from  the  thought 
of  Henrietta.  She  was  now  a  married  woman,  he  was 
a  married  man  —  by  the  register.  Stronger  proof  of 
the  maddest  of  worlds  could  not  be  furnished. 

Sane  in  so  mad  a  world,  a  man  is  your  flabby  citizen 
among  outlaws,  good  for  plucking.  Fun,  at  any  cost, 
is  the  one  object  worth  a  shot  in  such  a  world.  And 
the  fun  is  not  to  stop.  If  it  does,  we  are  likely  to  be 
got  hold  of,  and  lugged  away  to  the  altar  —  the  termi- 
nus. That  foul  disaster  has  happened,  through  our 
having  temporarily  yielded  to  a  fit  of  the  dumps  and 
treated  a  mad  world's  lunatic  issue  with  some  serious- 
ness. But  fun  shall  be  had  with  the  aid  of  His  High- 
ness below.  The  madder  the  world,  the  madder  the 
fun.  And  the  mixing  in  it  of  another  element,  which 
it  has  to  beguile  us  —  romance  —  is  not  at  all  bad 
cookery.  Poetic  romance  is  delusion  —  a  tale  of  a 
Corsair  —  a  poet's  brain,  a  bottle  of  gin,  and  a  theatri- 
cal wardrobe.  Comic  romance  is  about  us  everywhere, 
alive  for  the  tapping. 

A  daughter  of  the  Old  Buccaneer  should  participate 
in  it  by  right  of  birth :  she  would  expect  it  in  order 
to  feel  herself  perfectly  at  home.     Then,  be  sure,  she 


228  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

finds  an  English  tongue  and  prattles  away  as  merrily 
as  slie  does  when  her  old  scapegrace  of  a  father  is  the 
theme.  Son-in-law  to  him!  But  the  i^ath  of  wisdom 
runs  in  the  line  of  facts,  and  to  have  wild  fun  and 
romance  on  this  pantomime  path,  instead  of  kicking  to 
break  away  from  it,  we  follow  things  conceived  by  the 
genius  of  the  situation,  for  the  delectation  of  the  fair 
countess  of  Fleetwood  and  the  earl,  her  delighted  hus- 
band, quite  in  the  spirit  of  the  Old  Buccaneer,  father 
of  the  bride. 

Carinthia  sat  beside  the  fire,  seeing  nothing  in  the 
room  or  on  the  road.  Up  in  her  bedchamber,  the  girl 
Madge  was  at  her  window.  She  saw  Lord  Fleetwood 
standing  alone,  laughing,  it  seemed,  at  some  thought ; 
he  threw  up  his  head.  Was  it  a  newly  married  man 
leaving  his  bride  and  laughing  ?  The  bride  was  a  dear 
lady,  fit  for  better  than  to  be  driven  to  look  on  at  a 
prize-fight  —  a  terrible  scene  to  a  lady.  She  was  left 
solitary  :  and  this  her  wedding  day  ?  The  earl  had  said 
it,  he  had  said  she  bore  his  name,  spoke  of  coming  from 
the  altar,  and  the  lady  had  blushed  to  hear  herself 
called  Miss.  The  pressure  of  her  hand  was  warm  with 
Madge:  her  situation  roused  the  fervid  latent  sister- 
hood in  the  breast  of  women. 

Before  he  mounted  the  coach.  Lord  Fleetwood  talked 
to  Kit  Ines.  The  girl  ran  downstairs  to  bid  her  lover 
good-bye  and  shoAV  him  she  really  rejoiced  in  his  victory. 
Kit  came  to  her  saying :  ^^  Given  my  word  of  honour  I 


A   SHADOW   CONTEST  229 

won't  make  a  beast  of  myself  to-night.     Got  to  watch 
over  you  and  your  lady." 

Lord  Fleetwood  started  his  fresh  team,  casting  no 
glance  at  the  windows  of  the  room  where  his  bride  was. 
He  and  the  gentlemen  on  the  coach  were  laughing. 

His  leaving  of  his  young  bride  to  herself  this  day, 
was  classed  among  the  murky  flashes  which  distin- 
guished the  deeds  of  noblemen.  But  his  laughter  on 
leaving  her  stamped  it  a  cruelty;  of  the  kind  that 
plain  mortals,  who  can  be  monsters,  commit.  Madge 
conceived  a  pretext  for  going  into  the  presence  of  her 
mistress,  whose  attitude  was  the  same  as  when  she  first 
sat  in  the  chair.  The  lady  smiled  and  said :  "  He  is 
not  hurt  much  ?  "     She  thought  for  them  about  her. 

The  girl's  heart  of  sympathy  thumped,  and  her  hero 
becapie  a  very  minute  object.  He  had  spoken  previ- 
ously of  the  making  or  not  making  of  a  beast  of  him- 
self, without  inflicting  a  picture  of  the  beast.  His 
words  took  shape  now,  and  in  consequence  a  little  self- 
pity  began  to  move.  It  stirred  to  swell  the  great  wave 
of  pity  for  the  lady,  that  was  in  her  bosom.  "  Oh,  he  ! " 
she  said,  and  extinguished  the  thought  of  him ;  and  at 
once  her  underlip  was  shivering,  her  eyes  filled  and  \/ 
poured. 

Carinthia  rose  anxiously.  The  girl  dropped  at  her 
feet.  "  You  have  been  so  good  to  me  to-day,  my  lady ! 
so  good  to  me  to-day !  I  can't  help  it  —  I  don't  often  — 
just  for  this  moment;  I've  been  excited.     Oh,  he's  well. 


230  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

he  will  do  ;  he's  nothing.  You  say  ^  poor  child ! '  But 
I'm  not;  it's  only  excitement.  I  do  long  to  serve  you 
the  best  I  can." 

She  stood  up  in  obedience  and  had  the  arms  of  her 
young  mistress  pressing  her.  Tears  also  were  stream- 
ing from  Carinthia's  eyes.  Heartily  she  thanked  the 
girl  for  the  excuse  to  cry. 

They  were  two  women.  On  the  road  to  Canleys,  the 
coach  conveying  men  spouted  with  the  lusty  anecdote, 
relieved  of  the  interdict  of  a  tyrannical  sex. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

DOWN    WHITECHAPEL   WAY 


Contention  begets  contention  in  a  land  of  the  pirate 
races.  Gigs  were  at  high  rival  speed  along  the  road 
from  the  battle-field  to  London.  They  were  the  electri- 
cal wires  of  the  time  for  an  expectant  population  burst- 
ing to  have  report  of  so  thundering  an  event  as  the 
encounter  of  two  champion  light  weights,  nursed  and 
backed  by  a  pair  of  gallant  young  noblemen,  pick  of 
the  whole  row  of  coronets  above.  London  panted  gape- 
ing  and  the  gigs  flew  with  the  meat  to  fill  it. 

Chumley  Potts  offered  Ambrose  Mallard  f?ir  odds 
that  the  neat  little  trap  of  the  chief  sporting  journal. 


DOWN   WHITECHAPEL   WAY  231 

which,  had  a  reputation  to  maintain,  would  be  over  one 
or  other  of  the  bridges  crossing  the  Thames  first.  Mal- 
lard had  been  struck  by  the  neat  little  trap  of  an 
impudent  new  and  lower-priced  journal,  which  had  a 
reputation  to  gain.  He  took  the  proffered  odds,  on  the 
cry  as  of  a  cracker  sx^iitting.  Enormous  difficulties  in 
regard  to  the  testimony  and  the  verifications  were 
discussed;  they  were  overcomiC.  Potts  was  ready  for 
any  amount  of  trouble ;  Mallard  the  same.  There  was 
clearly  a  race.  There  would  consequently  be  a  record. 
Visits  to  the  offices  of  those  papers,  perhaps  half  a  day 
at  the  south  end  of  London  or  on  Westminster  bridge, 
examining  witnesses,  corner  shopmen,  watermen,  and 
the  like,  would  or  should  satisfactorily  establish  the 
disputed  point. 

Fleetwood  had  his  fun;  insomuch  that  he  laughed 
himself  into  a  sentiment  of  humaneness  toward  the 
couple  of  donkeys  and  forgot  his  contempt  of  them. 
Their  gamblings  and  their  bets  increased  his  number 
of  dependents;  and  imbeciles  were  preferable  to  dolts 
or  the  dry  gilt  figures  of  the  circle  he  had  to  move  in. 
Matter  for  some  astonishment  had  been  furnished  to 
the  latter  this  day;  and  would  cause  an  icy  Signor 
stare  and  rather  an  angry  Signora  flutter.  A  character- 
istic of  that  upper  circle,  as  he  knew  it,  is,  that  the  good 
are  dull,  the  vicious  very  bad.  They  had  nothing  to 
please  him  but  manners.  Elsewhere  this  land  is  a  land 
of  no  manners.     Take  it  and  make  the  most  of  it,  then, 


232  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

for  its  quality  of  brute  honesty:  which  is  found  to 
flourish  best  in  the  British  prize-ring. 

His  irony  landed  him  there.  It  struck  the  country 
a  ringing  blow.  But  it  struck  an  almost  effacing  one 
at  the  life  of  the  young  nobleman  of  boundless  wealth, 
whose  highest  renown  was  the  being  a  patron  of  prize- 
fighters. Husband  of  the  daughter  of  the  Old  Bucca- 
neer as  well !  perchance  as  a  result.  That  philosopher 
tramp  named  her  ^beautiful  Gorgon.'  She  has  no 
beauty;  and  as  for  Gorgon,  the  creature  has  a  look  of 
timid  softness  in  waiting  behind  her  rocky  eyes.  A 
barbaric  damsel  beginning  to  nibble  at  civilization,  is 
nearer  the  mark ;  and  ought  she  to  be  discouraged  ? 

Fleetwood's  wrath  with  his  position  warned  him 
against  the  dupery  of  any  such  alcove  thoughts.  For 
his  wrath  revenged'  him,  and  he  feared  the  being 
stripped  of  it,  lest  a  certain  fund  of  his  own  softness, 
that  he  knew  of,  though  few  did,  should  pull  him  to 
the  creature's  feet.  She  belonged  to  him  indeed ;  so 
he  might  put  her  to  the  trial  of  whether  she  had  a 
heart  and  personal  charm,  without  the  ceremony  of 
wooing  —  which,  in  his  case,  tempted  to  the  feeling 
desperately  earnest  and  becoming  enslaved.  He  specu- 
lated upon  her  eyelids  and  lips,  and  her  voice,  when 
melting,  as  women  do  in  their  different  ways;  here 
and  there  with  an  execrable  —  perhaps  pardonable  — 
art;  one  or  two  divinely.  The  vision  drew  him  to  a 
h^sadlong    plunge     and    swim    of.   the   amorous    mind, 


DOWN   WHITECHAPEL    WAY  233 

occupying  a  minute,  filling  an  era.  He  corrected  the 
feebleness,  and  at  the  same  time  threw  a  practical 
coachman's  glance  on  peculiarities  of  the  road,  requir- 
ing some  knowledge  of  it  if  traversed  backward  at 
a  whipping  pace  on  a  moonless  night. 

He  did  not  phrase  it,  that  a  talk  with  the  fellow 
Woodseer  of  his  mountains  and  his  forests,  and  nature, 
philosophy,  poetry,  would  have  been  particularly  healthy 
for  him,  almost  as  good  as  the  good  counsel  he  needed 
and  solicited  none  to  give  him.  It  swept  among  his 
ruminations  while  he  pricked  Potts  and  Mallard  to 
supply  his  craving  for  satanical  fare. 

Gower  Woodseer,  the  mention  of  whom  is  a  dejection 
to  the  venerable  source  of  our  story,  was  then  in  the 
act  of  emerging  from  the  eastward  into  the  southward 
of  the  line  of  Canterbury's  pilgrims  when  they  set 
forth  to  worship,  on  his  homeward  course,  after  a 
walk  of  two  days  out  of  Dover.  He  descended  Lon- 
don's borough,  having  exactly  twopence  halfpenny  for 
refreshment,  following  a  term  of  prudent  starvation, 
at  the  end  of  the  walk.  It  is  not  a  district  seductive  to 
the  A\^ayfarer's  appetite ;  as,  for  example,  one  may  find 
the  Jew's  fry  of  fish  in  oil,  inspiriting  the  ShoreHitch 
region,  to  be.  jSTourishjnent  is  afforded^  according  to 
the  laws  of  England's  genius  in  the  arts  of  refection, 
at  uninviting  shops,  to  the  necessitated  stomach.  A 
penn'orth  of  crumb  of  bread,  assisted  on  its  laborious 
passage   by  a  penn'orth   of   the   rinsings   of  beer,   left 


234  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

the  natural  philosopher  a  ha'penny  for  dessert  at  the 
stall  of  an  applewoman,  where  he  withstood  an  inclina- 
tion toward  the  juicy  fruit  and  chose  nuts.  They 
extend  a  meal,  as  a  grimace  broadens  the  countenance, 
illusorily ;  but  they  help  to  cheat  an  emptiness  in  time, 
where  it  is  nearly  as  offensive  to  our  sensations  as 
within  us;  and  that  prolonged  occupation  of  the  jaws 
goes  a  length  to  persuade  us  we  are  filling.  All  the 
better  if  the  substance  is  indigestible.  Tramps  of  the 
philosophical  order,  who  are  the  practically  sagacious, 
prefer  tough  grain  for  the  teeth.  Woodseer's  munch- 
ing of  his  nuts  awakened  to  fond  imagination  the  pict- 
ure of  his  father's  dinner,  seen  one  day  and  little 
envied:  a  small  slice  of  cold  boiled  mutton-flesh  in  a 
crescent  of  white  fat,  with  a  lump  of  dry  bread  beside 
the  plate. 

Thus  he  returned  to  the  only  home  he  had,  not  dis- 
heartened, and  bearing  scenes  that  outvied  London's 
print-shops  for  polychrome  splendour,  an  exultation  to 
recall.  His  condition,  moreover,  threw  his  father's  life 
and  work  into  colour :  the  lean  Whitechapel  house  of 
the  minister  among  the  poor;  the  joy  in  the  saving 
of  souls,  if  he  could  persuade  himself  that  such  good 
labour  advanced:  and  at  the  fall  of  light,  the  pastime 
task  of  bootmaking  —  a  desirable  occupation  for  a 
thinker.  Thought  flies  best  when  the  hands  are  easily 
busy.  Cobblers  have  excursive  minds.  Their  occa- 
sional rap  at  the  pegs   diversifies  the  stitchings  and  is 


DOWN   WHITECHAPEL  WAY  235 

often  happily  timed  to  settle  an  internal  argument. 
Seek  in  a  village  for  information  concerning  the  vil- 
lage or  the  state  of  mankind,  you  will  be  less  disap- 
pointed at  the  cobbler's  than  elsewhere,  it  has  been 
said. 

As  Gower  had  anticipated  with  lively  feelings  of 
pleasure,  Mr.  Woodseer  was  at  the  wonted  corner  of 
his  back  room,  on  the  stool  between  two  tallow  candle- 
flames,  leather-scented  strongly,  when  the  wanderer 
stood  before  him,  in  the  image  of  a  ball  that  has 
done  with  circling  about  a  stable  point. 

"  Back  ? "  the  minister  sang  out  at  once,  and  his 
wrinkles  gleamed. 

Their  hands  grasped. 

"Hungry,  sir,  rather." 

"To  be  sure,  you  are.  One  can  read  it  on  your 
boots.  Mrs.  Jones  will  spread  you  a  table.  How 
many  miles  to-day  ?  Show  the  soles.  They  tell  a 
tale  of  wear." 

They  had  worn  to  resemble  the  half-dozen  thin- 
edged  layers  of  still  upper  cloud  round  the  peep  of 
coming  sky. 

"About  forty  odd  to-day,  sir.  They've  done  their 
hundreds  of  miles  and  have  now  come  to  dock.  I'll 
ask  Mrs.  Jones  to  bring  me  a  plate  here." 

Gower  went  to  the  housekeeper  in  the  kitchen.  His 
father's  front  door  was  unfastened  by  day ;  she  had 
not  set  eyes  on  him  yet  and  Mr.  Woodseer  murmured : 


236  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"Now  she's  got  the  boy.  There's  clasping  and  kissing. 
He's  all  wild  Wales  to  her." 

The  plate  of  meat  was  brought  by  Mary  Jones  with 
Gower  beside  her,  and  a  sniffle  of  her  happiness  audible. 
She  would  not,  although  invited  to  stay  and  burning 
to  hear  Gower,  wait  in  the  room  where  father  and  son 
had  to  talk  together  after  a  separation,  long  to  love's 
counting.  She  was  a  Welshwoman  of  the  pure  blood, 
therefore  delicately  mannered  by  nature. 

^'Yes,  dear  lad,  tobacco  helps  you  on  to  the  marrow 
of  your  story,  and  I  too  will  blow  the  cloud,"  said 
Mr.  Woodseer,  when  the  plate  was  pushed  aside  and 
the  pipe  appeared. 

So  Gower' s  recital  of  his  wanderings  began,  more 
puffs  than  speech  at  the  commencement.  He  was  alter- 
nately picturesque  and  sententious  until  he  reached 
Baden;  there  he  became  involved,  from  thinking  of  a 
revelation  of  beauty  in  woman. 

Mr.  Woodseer  rapped  the  leather  on  his  block. 

"A  place  where  they  have  started  public  gambling, 
I  am  told." 

'•We  must  look  into  all  the  corners  of  the  world  to 
know  it,  sir,  and  the  world  has  to  be  riddled  or  it 
riddles  us." 

"  Ah.     Did  you  ever  tell  a  lie,  Gower  Woodseer  ?  " 

''I  played." 

"You  played.  The  Lord  be  thanked  you  have  kept 
your  straight   tongue  !     The   Lord   can   always   enter  a 


DOWN   W HITECH APEL  WAY  237 

heart  of  truth.  Sin  cannot  dwell  with  it.  But  you 
played  for  gain,  and  that  was  a  licenced  thieving ;  and 
that  was  a  backsliding;  and  there  will  have  to  be  a 
climbing  up.  And  what  that  means,  your  hold  on  truth 
will  learn.  Touch  sin  and  you  accommodate  yourself 
to  its  vileness.  Ay,  you  love  Xature.  Xature  is  not 
anchorage  for  vessels  like  men.  If  you  loved  the  Book 
you  would  float  in  harbour.  You  played.  I  do  trust 
you  lost." 

"You  have  your  wish,  sir." 

"  To  have  won  their  money,  Gower !     Eather  starve." 

"  I  did." 

"  Your  reason  for  playing,  poor  lad  ?  " 

"The  reason  eludes   reason." 

"Isot  in  you." 

"  Sight  of  the  tables ;  an  itch  to  try  them  —  one's 
self  as  well;  a  notion  that  the  losers  were  playing 
wrong.  In  fine,  a  bit  of  a  whirl  of  a  medley  of  atoms ; 
I  can't  explain  it  further." 

"  Ah.  The  tippler's  fumes  in  his  head !  Spotty 
business,  Gower  Woodseer.  ^Lead  us  not  into  tempta- 
tion '  is  worldly  wisdom  in  addition  to  heavenly." 

After  listening  to  an  extended  homily,  with  a  gen- 
eral assent  and  tobacco's  phlegm,  Gower  replied  to 
his  father's  "  You  starved  manfully  ?  "  nodding :  "  From 
Baden  to  Nancy.  An  Alsatian  cottager  at  times  helped 
me  along,  milk  and  bread." 

"  AVholesome  for  body  and  for  soul." 


238  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"Entering  Nancy  I  subscribed  to  the  dictum  of  our 
first  fathers,  which  dogs  would  deliver,  if  they  could 
speak:  that  there  is  no  driver  like  stomach:  and  I 
went  head  on  to  the  College,  saw  the  Principal :  plea 
of  urgency.  jSTo  engagement  possible,  to  teach  either 
French  or  English.  But  he  was  inquisitive  touching 
the  urgency.  That  was  my  chance.  The  French  are 
humane  when  they  are  not  suspicious  of  you.  They 
are  generous,  if  you  put  a  light  to  their  minds.  As  I 
was  dealing  with  a  scholarly  one,  I  made  use  of  such 
ornamental  literary  skill  as  I  possessed,  to  prove 
urgency.  He  supplied  me  with  bread,  fruit,  and  wine. 
In  the  end  he  procured  me  pupils.  I  lodged  over  a 
baker's  shop.  I  had  good  walks,  and  learnt  something 
of  forestry  there  —  a  taking  study.  When  I  had  saved 
enough  to  tramp  it  home,  I  said  my  adieux  to  that 
good  friend  and  tramped  away,  entering  London  with 
about  the  same  amount  in  small  coin  as  when  I  en- 
tered Nancy.  A  manner  of  exactly  hitting  the  mark, 
that  some  would  not  find  so  satisfactory  as  it  is  to  me." 

The  minister  sighed.  "There  comes  in  the  'philoso- 
phy,' I  suppose.  When  will  you  understand,  that  this 
'  philosophy '  is  only  the  passive  of  a  religious  faith !  It 
seems  to  suit  you  gentlemen  of  the  road  while  you  are 
young.  Work  among  the  Whitechapei  poor.  It  would 
be  a  way  for  discovering  the  shallows  of  your  *  philoso- 
phy '  earlier." 

Gower  asked  liim :  "  Going  badly  here,  sir  ?  " 


DOWN   WHITECHAPEL   WAY  239 

"  Murders,  robberies,  misusage  of  women,  and  miscon- 
duct of  women !  —  Drink,  in  sliort :  about  the  same 
amount.  Drink  is  their  death's  river,  rolling  them  on 
helpless  as  corpses,  on  to  —  may  they  find  mercy !  I  and 
a  few  stand  —  it's  in  the  tide  we  stand  here,  to  stop 
them,  pluck  them  out,  make  life  a  bit  sweet  to  them 
before  the  poor  bodies  go  beneath.  But  come !  all's  not 
dark,  we  have  our  gleams.  I  speak  distressed  by  one  of 
our  girls :  a  good  girl,  I  believe ;  and  the  wilfullest  that 
ever  had  command  of  her  legs.  A  well-favoured  girl ! 
You'll  laugh,  she  has  given  her  heart  to  a  prize-fighter. 
Well,  you  can  say,  she  might  have  chosen  worse.  He 
drinks,  she  hates  it ;  she  loves  the  man  and  hates  his 
vice.  He  swears  amendment,  is  hiccuping  at  night; 
fights  a  match  on  the  morrow,  and  gets  beaten  out  of 
formation.  No  matter:  whenever,  wherever,  that  man 
goes  to  his  fight,  that  girl  follows  to  nurse  him  after  it. 
He's  her  hero.  Women  will  have  one,  and  it's  their 
lottery.  You  read  of  such  things  ;  here  Ave  have  it  alive 
and  walking.  I  am  led  to  think  they're  an  honest 
couple.  They  come  of  established  families.  Her 
mother  was  out  of  Caermarthen;  died  under  my  minis- 
tration, saintly,  forgiving  the  drunkard.  You  may 
remember  the  greengrocer,  Tobias  W^inch?  He  passed 
away  in  shrieks  for  one  drop.  I  had  to  pitch  my  voice 
to  the  top  notes  to  get  hearing  for  the  hymn.  He  was  a 
reverent  man,  with  the  craving  by  fits.  That  should 
have  been  a  lesson  to  Madge." 


^ 


240  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

*'  A  little  girl  at  the  greengrocer's  hard  by  ?  She  sold 
me  apples ;  rather  pretty/'  said  Gower. 

"A  fine  grown  girl  now  —  Madge  Winch;  a  comely 
wench  she  is.  It  breaks  her  sister  Sarah's  heart.  They 
both  manage  the  little  shop ;  they  make  it  prosper  in  a 
small  way ;  enough,  and  what  need  they  more  ?  Then 
Christopher  Ines  has  on  one  of  his  matches.  Madge 
drives  her  cart  out,  if  it's  near  town.  She's  off  down 
into  Kent  to-day  by  coach,  Sarah  tells  me.  A  great 
nobleman  patronizes  Christopher ;  a  Lord  Fleetwood,  a 
lord  of  wealth.  And  he  must  be  thoughtful  for  these 
people :  he  sent  Sarah  word  that  Christopher  should  not 
touch  drink.  You  may  remember  a  butcher  Ines  in  the 
street  next  to  us.  Christopher  was  a  wild  lad,  always  at 
'  best  man '  with  every  boy  he  met :  went  to  sea  —  ran 
away.  He  returned  a  pugilist.  The  girl  will  be  nursing 
him  now.  I  have  spoken  to  her  of  him;  and  I  trust 
to  her;  but  I  mourn  her  attachment  to  the  man  Avho 
drinks." 

"  The  lord's  name  ?  "  said  Gower. 

"Lord  Fleetwood,  Sarah  named  him.  And  so  it 
pleases  him  to  spend  his  money." 

'*He  has  other  tastes.  I  know  something  of  him, 
sir.  He  promises  to  be  a  patron  of  Literature  as  well. 
His  mother  was  a  South  Wales  woman." 

"  Could  he  be  persuaded  to  publish  a  grand  edition 
of  the  Triads  ? "  Mr.  Woodseer  said  at  once. 

"No  man  more  likelv." 


DOWN   WHITECHAPEL   WAY  241 

"  If  you  see  him,  suggest  it." 

"Very  little  chance  of  my  meeting  him  again.  But 
those  Triads !  They're  in  our  blood.  They  spring  to 
tie  knots  in  the  head.  They  push  me  to  condense  my 
thoughts  to  a  tight  ball.  They  were  good  for  primi- 
tive times :  but  they  —  or  the  trick  of  the  mind  engen- 
dered by  them  —  trip  my  steps  along  the  lines  of 
composition.  I  produce  pellets  instead  of  flowing 
sheets.  It'll  come  right.  At  present  I'm  so  bent  to 
pick  and  perfect,  polish  my  phrase,  that  I  lose  my 
survey.     As  a  consequence,  my  vocabulary  falters." 

"Ah,"  Mr.  Woodseer  breathed  and  smote.  ''This 
Literatui*e  is  to  be  your  profession  for  the  means  of 
living  ?  " 

"Nothing  else.  And  I'm  so  low  down  in  the  mar- 
ket way  of  it,  that  I  could  not  count  on  twenty  pounds 
per  annum.  Fifty  would  give  me  standing,  an  inde- 
pendent fifty." 

"'  To  whom  are  you  crying,  Gower  ?  " 

"Not  to  gamble,  you  may  be  sure."' 

"You  have  a  home." 

"  Good  work  of  the  head  wants  an  easy  conscience. 
I've  too  much  of  you  in  me  for  a  comfortable  pen- 
sioner." 

"'  Or  is  it  not,  that  you  have  been  living  the  gentle- 
man out  there,  with  just  a  holiday  title  to  it  ?  " 

Gower  was  hit  by  his  father's  thrust.  "I  shall  feel 
myself  a  pieman's  chuckpenny  as   long   as  I'm   unpro- 


242  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

ductive,  now  IVe  come  back  and  have  to  own  to  a 
home,  "  he  said. 

Tea  brought  in  by  Mrs.  Mary  Jones  rather  bright- 
ened him  until  he  considered  that  the  enlivenment  was 
due  to  a  purchase  by  money,  of  which  he  was  incapable, 
and  he  rejected  it,  like  an  honourable  man.  Simulta- 
neously, the  state  of  depression  threw  critic  shades  on  a 
prized  sentence  or  two  among  his  recent  confections.  It 
was  rejected  for  the  best  of  reasons  and  the  most  dis- 
comforting :  because  it  racked  our  English ;  signifying, 
that  he  had  not  yet  learnt  the  right  use  of  his  weapons. 

He  was  in  this  wrestle,  under  a  placid  demeanour,  for 
several  days,  hearing  the  shouts  of  Whitechapel  Kit's 
victory,  and  hearing  of  Sarah  Winch's  anxiety  on 
account  of  her  sister  Madge;  unaffected  by  sounds  of 
joy  or  grief,  in  his  effort  to  produce  a  supple  English, 
with  Baden's  Madonna  for  sole  illumination  of  his  dark- 
ness. To  her,  to  the  illimitable  gold-mist  of  perspective 
and  the  innumerable  images  the  thought  of  her  painted 
for  him,  he  owed  the  lift  which  withdrew  him  from 
contemplation  of  himself  in  a  very  disturbing  stagnant 
pool  of  the  wastes ;  wherein  often  will  strenuous  youth, 
grown  faint,  behold  a  face  beneath  a  scroll  inscribed 
Impostor.  All  whose  aim  was  high  have  spied  into 
that  pool,  and  have  seen  the  face.  His  glorious  lady 
would  not  let  it  haunt  him. 

The  spell  she  cast  had  likewise  power  to  raise  him 
clean   out   of   a  neighbourhood  hinting  Erebus   to  the 


DOWN   WHITECHAPEL   WAY  243 

young  man  with  thirst  for  air,  solitudes,  and  colour. 
Scarce  imaginable  as  she  was,  she  reigned  here,  in  the 
idea  of  her,  more  fixedly  than  where  she  had  been  visi- 
ble, as  it  were,  by  right  of  her  being  celestially  removed 
from  the  dismal  place.  He  was  at  the  same  time 
not  insensible  to  his  father's  contented  ministrations 
among  these  homes  of  squalor ;  they  pricked  the  curi- 
osity, which  was  in  the  youthful  philosopher  a  form  of 
admiration.  For  his  father,  like  all  Welshmen,  loved 
the  mountains.  Yet  here  he  lived,  exhorting,  minister- 
ing, aiding,  supported  up  to  high  good  cheer  by  some, 
it  seemed,  superhuman  backbone  of  uprightness :  —  his 
religious  faith  ?  Well,  if  so,  the  thing  might  be  studied. 
But  things  of  the  frozen  senses,  lean  and  hueless  things, 
were  as  repellent  to  Gower's  imagination  as  his  father's 
dishes  to  an  epicure.  What  he  envied  was,  the  worthy 
old  man's  heart  of  feeling  for  others  :  his  feeling  at 
present  for  the  girl  Sarah  Winch  and  her  sister  Madge, 
who  had  not  been  heard  of  since  she  started  for  the 
fight.  Mr.  Woodseer  had  written  to  her  relatives  at 
the  Wells,  receiving  no  consolatory  answer. 

He  was  relieved  at  last ;  and  still  a  little  perplexed. 
Madge  had  returned,  he  informed  Gower.  She  was  well, 
she  was  well  in  health ;  he  had  her  assurances  that  she 
was  not  excited  about  herself. 

"She  has  brought  a  lady  with  her,  a  great  lady  to 
lodge  with  her.  She  has  brought  the  Countess  of  Fleet- 
wood to  lodsre  with  her." 


244  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Gower  heard  those  words  from  his  father;  and  his 
father  repeated  them.  To  the  prostrate  worshipper  of 
the  Countess  of  Fleetwood,  they  were  a  blow  on  the 
head ;  madness  had  set  in  here,  was  his  first  recovering 
thought,  or  else  a  miracle  had  come  to  pass.  Or  was  it 
a  sham  Countess  of  Fleetwood  imposing  upon  the  girl  ? 
His  father  was  to  go  and  see  the  great  lady,  at  the  green- 
grocer's shop ;  at  her  request,  according  to  Madge.  Con- 
jectures shot  their  perishing  tracks  across  a  darkness 
that  deepened  and  made  shipwreck  of  philosophy.  Was 
it  the  very  Countess  of  Fleetwood  penitent  for  her  dalli- 
ance with  the  gambling  passion,  in  feminine  need  of 
pastor's  aid,  having  had  report  from  Madge  of  this  good 
shepherd  ?  His  father  expressed  a  certain  surprise  ;  his 
countenance  was  mild.  He  considered  it  a  merely 
strange  occurrence. 

Perhaps,  in  a  crisis,  a  minister  of  religion  is  better 
armed  than  a  philosopher.  Gower  would  not  own  that, 
but  he  acknowledged  the  evidences,  and  owned  to  envy ; 
especially  when  he  accompanied  his  father  to  the  green- 
grocer's  shop,  and  Mr.  Woodseer  undisturbedly  said :  — 

"Here  is  the  i^lace."  The  small  stuffed  shop  ap- 
peared to  grow  portentously  cavernous  and  waveringly 
illumined. 


THE   GIRL  MADGE  245 


CHAPTEE  XIX 

THE    GIRL    MADGE 

Customers  were  at  the  counter  of  the  shop,  and  these 
rational  figures,  together  with  the  piles  of  cabbages,  the 
sacks  of  potatoes,  the  pale  small  oranges  here  and  there, 
the  dominant  smell  of  red  herrings,  denied  the  lurking 
of  an  angelical  presence  behind  them. 

Sarah  Winch  and  a  boy  served  at  the  counter.  Sarah 
led  the  Mr.  Woodseers  into  a  corner  knocked  off  the 
shop  and  called  a  room.  Below  the  top  bars  of  a 
wizened  grate  was  a  chilly  fire.  London's  light  came 
piecemeal  through  a  smut-streaked  window.  If  the 
wonderful  was  to  occur,  this  was  the  place  to  heighten 
it. 

•'IVry  son  may  be  an  intruder,"  Mr.  Woodseer  said. 
"  He  is  acquainted  with  a  Lord  Fleetwood  .  .  ." 

"Madge  will  know,  sir,"  replied  Sarah,  and  she  sent 
up  a  shrill  cry  for  Madge  from  the  foot  of  the  stairs. 

The  girl  ran  down  swiftly.  She  entered  listening  to 
Sarah,  looking  at  Gower;  to  whom,  after  a  bob  and 
pained  smile  where  reverence  was  owing,  she  said,  "  Can 
you  tell  me,  sir,  please,  where  we  can  find  Lord  Fleet- 
wood now  ?  " 

Gower  was  unable  to  tell.  Madge  turned  to  Mr. 
Woodseer,  saying   soon   after :    "  Oh,  she   won't   mind ; 


246  THE  AMAZING  MARKIAGE 

she'll  be  glad,  if  lie  knows  Lord  Fleetwood.  I'll  fetch 
her." 

The  moments  were  of  the  palpitating  order  for  Gower, 
although  his  common  sense  lectured  the  wildest  of 
hearts  for  expecting  such  a  possibility  as  the  presence 
of  his  lofty  lady  here. 

And,  of  course,  common  sense  proved  to  be  right :  the 
lady  was  quite  another.  But  she  struck  on  a  sleeping 
day  of  his  travels.  Her  face  was  not  one  to  be  forgotten, 
and  to  judge  by  her  tremble  of  a  smile,  she  remembered 
him  instantly. 

They  were  soon  conversing,  each  helping  to  paint  the 
scene  of  the  place  where  they  had  met. 

"  Lord  Fleetwood  has  married  me,"  she  said. 

Gower  bent  his  head;   all  stood  silent. 

"  May  I  ?  "  said  Madge  to  her.  ''  It  is  Lord  Fleet- 
wood's wedded  wife,  sir.  He  drove  her  from  her 
uncle's,  on  her  wedding  day,  the  day  of  a  prize-fight, 
where  I  was ;  he  told  me  to  wait  on  his  lady  at  an  inn 
there,  as  I've  done  and  will.  He  drove  away  that  even- 
ning,  and  he  hasn't" — the  girl's  black  eyebrows  worked: 
"  I've  not  seen  him  since.  He's  a  great  nobleman,  yes. 
He  left  his  lady  at  the  inn,  expenses  paid.  He  left  her 
with  no  money.  She  stayed  on  till  her  heart  was  break- 
ing. She  has  come  to  London  to  find  him.  She  had  to 
walk  part  of  the  way.  She  has  only  a  change  of  linen 
we  brought  in  a  parcel.  She's  a  stranger  to  England: 
she  knows  nobody  in  London.     She  had  no  place  to  come 


THE   GIKL  MADGE  247 

to  but  this  poor  hole  of  ours  she's  so  good  as  let  welcome 
her.  We  can't  do  better,  and  it's  no  use  to  be  ashamed. 
She's  not  a  lady  to  scorn  poor  people." 

The  girl's  voice  hummed  through  Gower. 

He  said:  "Lord  Fleetwood  may  not  be  in  London," 
and  chafed  at  himself  for  such  a  quaver. 

"  It's  his  house  we  want,  sir,  he  has  not  been  at  his 
house  in  Kent.     We  want  his  London  house." 

"  My  dear  lady,"  said  Mr.  Woodseer ;  "  it  might  be  as 
well  to  communicate  the  state  of  things  to  your  family 
without  delay.  My  son  will  call  at  any  address  you 
name;  or  if  it  is  a  country  address,  I  can  "^T.ite  the 
items,  with  my  assurances  of  your  safety  under  my 
charge,  in  my  house,  which  I  beg  you  to  make  your 
home.  My  housekeeper  is  known  to  Sarah  and  Madge 
for  an  excellent  Christian  woman." 

Carinthia  replied :  "  You  are  kind  to  me,  sir.  I  am 
grateful.  I  have  an  uncle;  I  would  not  disturb  my 
uncle  ;  he  is  inventing  guns  and  he  wishes  peace.  It  is 
my  husband  I  have  come  to  find.  He  did  not  leave  me 
in  anger." 

She  coloured.  With  a  dimple  of  tenderness  at  one 
cheek,  looking  from  Sarah  to  Madge,  she  said :  "  I  would 
not  leave  my  friends;    they  are  sisters  to  me." 

Sarah,  at  these  words,  caught  up  her  apron.  Madge 
did  no  more  than  breathe  deep  and  fast. 

An  unoccupied,  cold  parlour  in  Mr.  Woodseer's  house 
that  would  be  heated  for  a  guest,  urged  him  to  repeat 


248  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

his  invitation,  but  he  took  the  check  from  Gower,  who 
suggested  the  doubt  of  Mary  Jones  being  so  good  an 
attendant  upon  Lady  Fleetwood  as  Madge.  "And 
Madge  has  to  help  in  the  shop  at  times." 

Madge  nodded,  looked  into  the  eyes  of  her  mistress, 
which  sanctioned  her  saying  :  "  She  will  like  it  best  here, 
she  is  my  lady  and  I  understand  her  best.  My  lady 
gives  no  trouble :  she  is  hardy,  she's  not  like  other 
ladies.  I  and  Sarah  sleep  together  in  the  room  next. 
I  can  hear  anything  she  wants.  She  takes  us  as 
if  she  was  used  to  it." 

Sarah  had  to  go  to  serve  a  customer.  Madge  made 
pretence  of  pricking  her  ears  and  followed  into  the 
shop. 

"Your  first  visit  to  London  is  in  ugly  weather, 
Lady  Fleetwood,"  said  Gower. 

"It  is  my  first,"  she  answered. 

How  the  marriage  came  about,  how  the  separation, 
could  not  be  asked  and  was  not  related. 

"  Our  district  is  not  all  London,  my  dear  lady,"  said 
Mr.  Woodseer.  "Good  hearts  are  here,  as  elsewhere, 
and  as  many,  if  one  looks  behind  the  dirt.  I  have 
found  it  since  I  laboured  amongst  them,  now  twenty 
years.  Unwashed  human  nature,  though  it  is  natural 
to  us  to  wash,  is  the  most  human,  we  find." 

Gower  questioned  the  naturalness  of  human  nature's 
desire  to  wash;  and  they  wrangled  good-liumouredly, 
Carinthia's  eyes  dwelling  on  them   each  in  turn;  until 


THE  GIRL   MADGE  249 

Mr.  Woodseer,  pursuing  the  theme  started  by  him  to 
interest  her,  spoke  of  consolations  derived  from  his 
labours  here,  in  exchange  for  the  loss  of  his  moun- 
tains.    Her  face  lightened. 

"  You  love  the  mountains  ?  " 

"I  am  a  son  of  the  mountains." 

"  Ah,  I  love  them !  Father  called  me  a  daughter 
of  the  mountains.  I  was  born  in  the  mountains.  I 
was  leaving  my  mountains  on  the  day,  I  think  it 
yesterday,  when  I  met  this  gentleman  who  is  your 
son." 

"  A  glorious  day  it  was ! "  Gower  exclaimed. 

"It  was  a  day  of  great  glory  for  me,"  said  Carin- 
thia.     "Your  foot  did  not  pain  you  for  long?" 

"  The  length  of  two  pipes.  You  were  with  your 
brother." 

"With  my  brother.  My  brother  has  married  a 
most  beautiful  lady.  He  is  now  travelling  his  happy 
time  —  my  Chillon  !  " 

There  came  a  radiance  on  her  under-eyelids.  There 
was  no  weeping. 

Struck  by  the  contrast  between  the  two  simul- 
taneous honeymoons,  and  a  vision  of  the  high-spirited 
mountain  girl,  seen  in  this  place  a  young  bride  seek- 
ing her  husband,  Gower  Woodseer  could  have  per- 
formed that  unphilosophical  part.  He  had  to  shake 
himself.  She  seemed  really  a  soaring  bird  brought 
down  by  the  fowler. 


250  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

Lord  Fleetwood's  manner  of  abandoning  her  -^as  thn 
mystery. 

Gower  stood  waiting  for  her  initiative  when  the 
minister  interposed :  "  There  are  books,  books  of  our 
titled  people — the  Peers,  books  of  the  Peerage.  They 
would  supply  the  address.  My  son  will  discover 
where  to  examine  them.  He  will  find  the  address. 
Most  of  the  great  noblemen  have  a  London  house." 

"  My  husband  has  a  house  in  London,"  Carinthia 
said. 

"I  know  him,  to  some  degree,"  said  Gower. 

She  remarked:  "I  have  heard  that  you  do." 

Her  lips  were  shut,  as  to  any  hint  at  his  treatment 
of  her. 

Gower  went  into  the  shop  to  speak  with  Madge. 
The  girl  was  talking  in  the  business  tone  to  custom- 
ers ;  she  finished  her  commission  hurriedly  and  joined 
him  on  the  pavement  by  the  doorstep.  Her  voice  was 
like  the  change  for  the  swing  of  a  door  from  street 
to  temple. 

"  You've  seen  how  brave  she  is,  sir.  She  has  things 
to  bear.  Never  cries,  never  frets.  Her  marriage  day 
—  leastways  ...  I  can't,  no  girl  can  tell.  A  great 
nobleman,  yes.  She  waited,  believing  in  him;  she 
does.  She  hasn't  spoken  to  me  of  what  she's  had  to 
bear.  I  don't  know ;  I  guess ;  I'm  sure  I'm  right  — 
and  him  a  man!  Girls  learn  to  know  men,  call  them 
gentlemen  or   sweeps.      She   thinks    she   has    only  to 


THE   GIRL   MADGE  251 

meet  him  to  persuade  him  she's  fit  to  be  loved  by 
him.  She  thinks  of  love.  Would  he  —  our  tongues 
are  tied  except  among  ourselves  to  a  sister.  Leaves 
her  by  herself,  with  only  me,  after  —  it  knocks  me 
dumb !  Many  a  man  commits  a  murder  wouldn't  do 
that.  She  could  force  him  to  —  no,  it  isn't  a  house 
she  wants,  she  wants  him.  He's  her  husband,  Mr. 
Woodseer.  You  will  do  what  you  can  to  help;  I 
judge  by  your  father.  I  and  Sarah '11  slave  for  her 
to  be  as  comfortable  as  we  can  make  her;  we  can't 
give  her  what  she's  used  to.  I  shall  count  the 
hours." 

"  You  sold  me  apples  when  your  head  was  just 
above  the  counter,"  said  Gower. 

"Did  I?  —  you  won't  lose  time,  sir?"  she  rejoined. 
"  Her  box  is  down  at  the  beastly  inn  in  Kent.  Kind 
people,  I  dare  say;  their  bill  was  paid  any  extent, 
they  said.  She  walked  to  his  big  house  Esslemont  for 
news  of  him.  And  I'm  not  a  snivelling  wench  either; 
but  she  speaks  of  him  a  way  to  make  a  girl  drink 
her  tears,  if  they  ain't  to  be  let  fall." 

"  But  you  had  a  victory  down  there,"  Gower  hinted 
congratulations. 

"Ah,"  said  she. 

"Christopher  Ines  is  all  right  now?" 

"I've  as  good  as  lost  my  good  name  for  Kit  Ines, 
Mr.  Woodseer." 

"Not  with  my  dad,  Madge." 


252  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

"  The  minister  reads  us  at  the  heart.  Shall  we  hear 
the  street  of  his  house  in  London  before  night?" 

"  I  may  be  late." 

"I'll  be  up,  any  hour,  for  a  rap  at  the  shutters.  I 
want  to  take  her  to  the  house  early  next  morning.  She 
won't  mind  the  distance.  She  lies  in  bed,  her  eyes 
shut  or  open,  never  sleeping,  hears  any  mouse.  It 
shouldn't  go  on,  if  we  can  do  a  thing  to  help." 

"  I'm  off,"  said  Gower,  unwontedly  vexed  at  his 
empty  pocket,  that  could  not  offer  the  means  for  con- 
veyance to  a  couple  of  young  women. 

The  dark-browed  girl  sent  her  straight  eyes  at  him. 
They  pushed  him  to  hasten.  On  second  thoughts,  he 
stopped  and  hailed  her;  he  was  moved  to  confirm  an 
impression  of  this  girl's  features. 

His  mind  was  directed  to  the  business  burning  behind 
them,  honestly  enough,  as  soon  as  he  had  them  in  sight 
again. 

"I  ought  to  have  the  address  of  some  of  her  people, 
in  case,"  he  said. 

"She  won't  go  to  her  uncle,  I'm  sure  of  that,"  said 
Madge.  "He's  a  lord  and  can't  be  worried.'  It's  her 
husband  to  find  first." 

"  If  he's  to  be  found !  —  he's  a  lord,  too.  Has  she  no 
other  relatives  or  friends  ?  " 

"  She  loves  her  brother.  He's  an  officer.  He's  away 
on  honeymoon.  There's  an  admiral  down  Hampshire 
way,  a  place  I've  been   near   and   seen.     I'd  not  have 


THE   GIRL   MADGE  263 

you  go  to  any  of  them,  sir,  without  trying  all  we  can 
do  to  find  Lord  Fleetwood.  It's  Admiral  Fakenham 
she  speaks  of ;  she's  fond  of  him.  She's  not  minded  to 
bother  any  of  her  friends  about  herself." 

"I  shall  see  you  to-night,"  said  Gower,  and  set  his 
face  westward,  remembering  that  his  father  had  named 
Caermarthen  as  her  mother's  birthplace. 

Just  in  that  tone  of  hers  do  Welshwomen  talk  of 
their  country;  of  its  history,  when  at  home,  of  its 
mountains,  when  exiled:  and  in  a  language  like  hers, 
bare  of  superlatives  to  signify  an  ardour  conveyed  by 
the  fire  of  the  breath.  Her  quick  devotion  to  a  lady 
exciting  enthusiasm  through  admiring  pity  for  the  grace 
of  a  much-tried  quiet  sweetness,  was  explained;  apart 
from  other  reasons,  feminine  or  hidden,  which  might 
exist.  Only  a^Welsh  girl  would  be  so  quick  and  all  in 
it,  with  a  voice  intimating  a  heated  cauldron  under 
her  mouth.  None  but  a  Welsh-blooded  girl,  risking 
her  good  name  to  follow  and  nurse  the  man  she  con- 
sidered a  hero,  would  carry  her  head  to  look  virgin 
eyes  as  she  did.  One  could  swear  to  them,  Gower 
thought.  '  Contact  with  her  spirited  him  out  of  his 
mooniness. 

He  had  the  Cymric  and  Celtic  respect  of  character, 
which  puts  aside  the  person's  environments  to  face 
the  soul.  He  was  also  an  impressionable  fellow  among 
his  fellows,  a  philosopher  only  at  his  leisure,  in  his 
courted  solitudes.     Getting  away  some  strides  from  this 


254  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

girl  of  the  drilling  voice,  —  tlie  shudder-voice,  he  phrased 
itj  —  the  lady  for  whom  she  pleaded  came  clearer  into 
his  view  and  gradually  absorbed  him;  though  it  was 
an  emulation  with  the  girl  Madge,  of  which  he  was  a 
trifle  conscious,  that  drove  him  to  do  his  work  of 
service  in  the  directest  manner.  He  then  fancied  the 
girl  had  caught  something  of  the  tone  of  her  lady :  the 
savage  intensity  or  sincerity;  and  he  brooded  on  Ca- 
rinthia's  position,  the  mixture  of  the  astounding  and 
the  woful  in  her  misadventure.  One  could  almost 
laugh  at  our  human  fate,  to  think  of  a  drop  off  the 
radiant  mountain  heights  upon  a  Whitechapel  green- 
grocer's shop,  gathering  the  title  of  countess  midway. 
But  nothing  of  the  ludicrous  touched  her ;  no,  and  if 
we  bring  reason  to  scan  our  laugh  at  poor  humanity,  it 
is  we  who  are  in  the  place  of  the  ridiculous,  for  doing 
what  reason  disavows.  Had  he  not  named  her,  (7a- 
rinthia,  Saint  and  Martyr,  from  a  first  perusal  of  her 
face?  And  Lord  Fleetwood  had  read  and  repeated  it. 
Lord  Fleetwood  had  become  the  instrument  to  martyrize 
her  ?  That  might  be  ;  there  was  a  hoard  of  bad  stuff  in 
his  composition  besides  the  precious :  and  this  was  a 
nobleman  owning  enormous  wealth,  who  could  vitiate 
himself  by  disposing  of  a  multitude  of  men  and  women 
to  serve  his  will,  a  shifty  will.  Wealth  creates  the 
magician,  and  may  breed  the  fiend  within  him.  In 
the  hands  of  a  young  man,  wealth  is  an  invitation  to 
devilry.     Gower's  idea  of  the  story  of  Carinthia  inclined 


THE   GIRL   MADGE  255 

to  charge  Lord  Fleetwood  witli  very  possible  false  deal- 
ing. He  then  quashed  the  charge,  and  decided  to  wait 
for  information. 

At  the  second  of  the  aristocratic  Clubs  of  London's 
West,  into  which  he  stepped  like  an  easy  member,  the 
hall-porter  did  not  examine  his  clothing  from  German 
hat  to  boots,  and  gave  him  Lord  Fleetwood's  town  ad- 
dress. He  could  tell  Madge  at  night  by  the  door  of  the 
shuttered  shop,  that  Lord  Fleetwood  had  gone  down  to 
Wales. 

"  It  means  her  having  to  wait,"  she  said.  "  The  min- 
ister has  been  to  the  coach-office,  to  order  up  her  box 
from  that  inn.  He  did  it  in  his  name;  they  can't 
refuse;  no  money's  owing.  She  must  have  a  change. 
Sally  has  fifteen  pounds  locked  up  in  case  of  need." 

Sally's  capacity  and  economy  fetched  the  penniless 
philosopher  a  slap. 

"You've  taken  to  this  lady,"  he  said. 

"  She  held  my  hand  while  Kit  Ines  was  at  his  work ; 
and  I  was  new  to  her,  and  a  prize-fighter's  lass,  they  call 
me :  —  upon  the  top  of  that  nobleman's  coach,  where  he 
made  me  sit,  behind  her,  to  see  the  fight;  and  she  his 
wedded  lady  that  morning.  A  queer  groom.  He  may 
keep  Kit  Ines  from  drink,  he's  one  of  you  men,  and  rides 
over  anything  in  his  way.  I  can't  speak  about  it;  I 
could  swear  it  before  a  judge,  from  what  I  know.  Those 
Bundles  at  that  inn  don't  hear  anything  it  suits  him  to 
do.     All  the  people  down  in  those  parts  are  slaves  to 


256  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

him.  And  I  thought  he  was  a  real  St.  George  before,  — 
yes,  ready  I  was  to  kiss  the  ground  his  feet  crossed.  If 
you  could,  it's  Chinningfold  near  where  Admiral  Faken- 
ham  lives,  down  Hampshire  way.  Her  friends  ought  to 
hear  what's  happened  to  her.  They'll  find  her  in  a 
queer  place.  She  might  go  to  the  minister's.  I  believe 
she's  happier  with  us  girls." 

Gower  pledged  his  word  to  start  for  Chinningfold 
early  as  the  light  next  day.  He  liked  the  girl  the  better, 
in  an  amicable  fashion,  now  that  his  nerves  had  got  free 
of  the  transient  spell  of  her  kettle  tone  —  the  hardly 
varied  one  note  of  a  heart  boiling  with  sisterly  devotion 
to  a  misused  stranger  of  her  sex ;  —  and,  after  the  way  of 
his  race,  imagination  sprang  up  in  him,  at  the  heels  of 
the  quieted  senses,  releasing  him  from  the  personal  and 
physical  to  grasp  the  general  situation  and  place  the 
protagonist  foremost. 

He  thought  of  Carinthia,  with  full  vision  of  her. 
Some  wrong  had  been  done,  or  some  violation  of  the 
right,  to  guess  from  the  girl  Madge's  molten  words  in 
avoidance  of  the  very  words.  It  implied  —  though  it 
might  be  but  one  of  Love's  shrewder  discords  —  such 
suspected  traitorous  dealing  of  a  man  with  their  sister 
woman  as  makes  the  world  of  women  all  woman  toward 
her.  They  can  be  that,  and  their  being  so  illuminates 
their  hidden  sentiments  in  relation  to  the  mastering 
male,  whom  they  uphold. 

But  our  uninformed  philosopher  was  merely  picking 


STUDIES   IN   FOG,    ETC.  257 

up  scraps  of  sheddings  outside  the  dark  wood  of  the 
mystery  they  were  to  him,  and  playing  imagination 
upon  them.  This  primary  element  of  his  nature  soon 
enthroned  his  chosen  lady  above  their  tangled  obscu- 
rities. Beneath  her  tranquil  beams,  with  the  rapture  of 
the  knowledge  that  her  name  on  earth  was  Livia,  he 
threaded  East  London's  thoroughfares,  on  a  morning 
when  day  and  night  were  made  one  by  fog,  to  journey 
down  to  Chinningfold,  by  coach,  in  the  service  of  the 
younger  Countess  of  Fleetwood,  whose  right  to  the  title 
he  did  not  doubt,  though  it  directed  surprise  movements 
at  his  understanding  from  time  to  time. 


CHAPTEE   XX 


STUDIES  IN  FOG,  GOUT,  AN"  OLD  SEAMAN",  A  LOVELY 
SERPENT,  AND  THE  MORAL  EFFECTS  THAT  MAY  COME 
OF     A     BORROWED     SHIRT 

Money  of  his  father's  enabled  Gower  to  take  the 
coach ;  and  studies  in  fog,  from  the  specked  brown 
to  the  woolly  white  and  the  dripping  torn,  were  pro- 
posed to  the  traveller,  whose  preference  of  Nature's 
face  did  not  arrest  his  observation  of  her  domino  and 
petticoats ;  across  which  blank  sheets  he  curiously 
read  backward,  that  he  journeyed  by  the  aid  of  his 
father's  hard-earned,  ungrudged   piece  of   gold.     With- 


258  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

out  it,  he  would  have  been  useless  in  this  case  of 
need.  The  philosopher  could  starve  with  equanim- 
ity, and  be  the  stronger.  But  one  had,  it  seemed 
here  clearly,  to  put  on  harness  and  trudge  along  a 
line,  if  the  unhappy  were  to  have  one's  help.  Gradual 
experiences  of  his  business  among  his  fellows  were 
teaching  an  exercised  mind  to  learn  in  regions  where 
minds  unexercised  were  doctorial  giants  beside  it. 

The  study  of  gout  was  offered  at  Chinningfold. 
Admiral  Fakenliam's  butler  refused  at  first  to  take  a 
name  to  his  master.  Gower  persisted,  stating  the 
business  of  his  mission;  and  in  spite  of  the  very  sus- 
picious glib  good  English  spoken  by  a  man  wearing 
such  a  hat  and  suit,  the  butler  was  induced  to  consult 
Mrs.  Carthew. 

She  sprang  up  alarmed.  After  having  seen  the 
young  lady  happily  married  and  off  with  her  lordly 
young  husband,  the  arrival  of  a  messenger  from  the 
bride  gave  a  stir  the  wrong  way  to  her  flowing  recol- 
lections; the  scenes  and  incidents  she  had  smothered 
under  her  love  of  the  comfortable  stood  forth  appall- 
ingly. The  messenger,  the  butler  said,  Avas  no  gentle- 
man. She  inspected  Gower  and  heard  him  speak. 
An  anomaly  had  come  to  the  house;  for  he  had  the 
language  of  a  gentleman,  the  appearance  of  a  non- 
descript; he  looked  indifferent,  he  spoke  sympatheti- 
cally; and  he  was  frank  as  soon  as  the  butler  was 
out  of  hearing.      In  return  for   the    compliment,   she 


STUDIES   IN  FOG,   ETC.  259 

invited  him  to  her  sitting-room.  The  story  of  the 
young  countessj  whom  she  had  seen  driven  away  by 
her  husband  from  the  church  on  a  coach  and  four, 
as  being  now  destitute,  praying  to  see  her  friends,  in 
the  Whitechapel  of  London  —  the  noted  haunt  of 
thieves  and  outcasts,  bankrux^ts  and  the  abandoned; 
set  her  asking  for  the  first  time,  who  was  the  man 
with  dreadful  countenance  inside  the  coach?  A  pre- 
viously disregarded  horror  of  a  man.  She  went 
trembling  to  the  admiral,  though  his  health  was 
delicate,  his  temper  excitable.  It  was,  she  considered, 
an  occasion  for  braving  the  doctor's  interdict. 

Gower  was  presently  summoned  to  the  chamber 
where  Admiral  Fakenham  reclined  on  cushions  in  an 
edifice  of  an  arm-chair.  He  told  a  plain  tale.  Its 
effect  was  to  straighten  the  admiral's  back  and 
enlarge  in  grey  glass  a  pair  of  sea-blue  eyes.  And, 
"What's  that?  Whitechapel?"  the  admiral  exclaimed, 
—  at  high  pitch,  far  above  his  understanding.  The 
particulars  were  repeated,  whereupon  the  sick-room 
shook  with,  "  Greengrocer  ? "  He  stunned  himself 
with  another  of  the  monstrous  points  in  his  pet  girl's 
honeymoon :    "  A  prize-fight  ?  " 

To  refresh  a  saving  incredulity,  he  took  a  closer 
view  of  the  messenger.  Gower's  habiliments  were 
those  of  the  "queer  fish"  the  admiral  saw.  But  the 
meeting  at  Carlsruhe  was  recalled  to  him,  and  there 
was  a  worthy  effort  to  remember  it.      "Prize-fight!  — 


260  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Greengrocer  !  —  Whitechapel !  "  he  rang  the  changes 
rather  more  moderately;  till,  swelling  and  purpling, 
he  cried:  '-Where's  the  husband?" 

That  was  the  emissary's  question  likewise. 

"If  I  could  have  found  him,  sir,  I  should  not  have 
troubled  you." 

"Disappeared?  Plays  the  man  of  his  word,  then 
plays  the  madman!  Prize-fight  the  first  day  of  her 
honeymoon  ?     Good  Lord !     Leaves  her  at  the  inn  ?  " 

"She  was  left." 

"When  was  she  left?" 

"As  soon  as  the  fight  was  over  —  as  far  as  I 
understand." 

The  admiral  showered  briny  masculine  comments 
on  that  bridegroom. 

"  Her  brother's  travelling  somewhere  in  the  Pyrenees 

—  married  my  daughter.  She  has  an  uncle,  a  hermit." 
He  became  pale.  "I  must  do  it.  The  rascal  insults 
us  all.  Flings  her  off  the  day  he  married  her !  It's  a 
slap  in  the  face  to  all  of  us.  You  are  acquainted  with 
the  lady,  sir.  Would  you  call  her  a  red-haired  girl?" 
\X*^Eed-gold  of  the  ballads;  chestnut-brown,  with 
tl^reads  of  fire." 

"She  has  the  eyes  for  a  man  to  swear  by.  I  feel 
the  loss  of  her,  I  can  tell  you.  She  was  wine  and 
no    penalty   to  me.     Is   she    much    broken    under   it  ? 

—  if  I'm  to  credit  ...  I  suppose  I  must.  It  floors 
me." 


STUDIES   IN  FOG,   ETC.  261 

Admiral  Baldwin's  frosty  stare  returned  on  him. 
Gower  caught  an  image  of  it,  as  comparable,  without 
much  straining,  to  an  Arctic  region  smitten  by  the 
beams. 

"  Nothing  breaks  her  courage,"  he  said. 

"  To  be  sure,  my  poor  dear !  Who  could  have 
guessed  when  she  left  my  house  she  was  on  her  way 
to  a  prize-fight  and  a  greengrocer's  in  Whitechapel! 
But  the  dog's  not  mad,  though  his  bite's  bad ;  he's 
an  eccentric  mongrel.  He  wants  the  whip;  ought  to 
have  had  it  regularly  from  his  first  breeching.  He 
shall  whistle  for  her  when  he  repents;  and  he  will, 
mark  me.  This  gout  here  will  be  having  a  snap  at 
the  vitals  if  I  don't  start  to-night.  Oblige  me,  half 
a  minute." 

The  admiral  stretched  his  hand  for  an  arm  to 
give  support,  stood,  and  dropped  into  the  chair,  signi- 
fying a  fit  of  giddiness  in  the  word  "  Head." 

Before  the  stupor  had  passed,  Mrs.  Carthew 
entered,  anxious  lest  the  admittance  of  a  messenger 
of  evil  to  her  invalid  should  have  been  an  error 
of  judgment.  The  butler  had  argued  it  with  her.  She 
belonged  to  the  list  of  persons  appointed  to  cut  life's 
thread  when  it  strains,  their  general  kindness  being 
so  liable  to  misdirection. 

Gower  left  the  room  and  went  into  the  garden. 
He  had  never  seen  a  death ;  and  the  admiral's  peculiar 
pallor   intimated   events   proper   to   days   of  cold   mist 


262  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

and  a  dripping  stillness.  How  we  go,  was  tlie  question 
among  Ms  problems :  —  if  we  are  to  go  !  his  youthful 
frame  insistingly  added. 

The  fog  do^yn  a  wet  laurel-walk  contracted  his 
mind  with  the  chilling  of  his  blood,  and  he  felt  that 
he  would  have  to  see  the  thing  if  he  was  to  believe 
in  it.  Of  course  he  believed,  but  life  throbbed  rebel- 
liously,  and  a  picture  of  a  desk  near  a  lively  fire-grate, 
books  and  pen  and  paper,  and  a  piece  of  writing  to  be 
approved  of  by  the  Hesper  of  ladies,  held  ground  with 
a  pathetic  heroism  against  the  inevitable.  He  got 
his  wits  to  the  front  by  walking  faster ;  and  then 
thought  of  the  young  countess  and  the  friend  she 
might  be  about  to  lose.  She  could  number  her  friends 
on  her  fingers.  Admiral  Fakenham's  exclamations  of 
the  name  of  the  place  where  she  now  was,  conveyed 
an  inky  idea  of  the  fall  she  had  undergone.  Counting 
her  absent  brother,  with  himself,  his  father  and  the 
two  ^Vhitechapel  girls,  it  certainly  was  an  unexampled 
fall,  to  say  of  her,  that  they  and  those  two  girls  had 
become  by  the  twist  of  circumstances  the  most  service- 
able of  her  friends. 

Her  husband  was  the  unriddled  riddle  we  have  in  the 
wealthy  young  lord,  —  burning  to  possess,  and  making 
tatters  of  all  he  grasped,  the  moment  it  was  his  own. 
Glints  of  the  devilish  had  shot  from  him  at  the  gaming- 
tables,—  fine  haunts  for  the  study  of  our  lower  man. 
He  could  be  magnificent   in  generosity;   he  had  little 


STUDIES   IN  FOG,   ETC.  263 

humaiieiiess.  He  coveted  beauty  in  women  hungrily, 
and  seemed  to  be  born  hostile  to  them;  or  so  Gower 
judged  by  the  light  of  the  later  evidence  on  uncon- 
sidered antecedent  observations  of  him.  Why  marry 
her  to  cast  her  off  instantly  ?  The  crude  philosopher 
asked  it  as  helplessly  as  the  admiral.  And,  further, 
what  did  the  girl  Madge  mean  by  the  drop  of  her  voice 
to  a  hum  of  enforced  endurance  under  injury,  like  the 
furnace  behind  an  iron  door  ?  Older  men  might  have 
understood,  as  he  was  aware;  he  might  have  guessed, 
only  he  had  the  habit  of  scattering  meditation  upon  the 
game  of  hawk  and  fowl. 

Dame  Gossip  boils.  Her  one  idea  of  animation  is  to 
have  her  dramatis  j^ersonm  in  violent  motion,  always  the 
biggest  foremost ;  and,  indeed,  that  is  the  way  to  make 
them  credible,  for  the  wind  they  raise  and  the  succession 
of  collisions.  The  fault  of  the  method  is,  that  they  do 
not  instruct;  so  the  breath  is  out  of  them  before  they 
are  put  aside;  for  the  uninstructive  are  the  humanly 
deficient:  they  remain  with  us  like  the  tolerated  old 
aristocracy,  which  may  not  govern,  and  is  but  socially 
seductive.  The  deuteragonist  or  secondary  person  can 
at  times  tell  us  more  of  them  than  circumstances  at 
furious  heat  will  help  them  to  reveal ;  and  the  Dame 
will  have  him  only  as  an  index-post.  Hence  her  end- 
less ejaculations  over  the  mystery  of  Life,  the  inscruta- 
bility of  character,  —  in  a  plain  world,  in  the  midst  of 
such  readable   people !     To  preserve  Eomance   (we  ex- 


264  THE   AMAZING   MAKRIAGE 

change  a  sky  for  a  ceiling  if  we  let  it  go),  we  must  be 
inside  the  heads  of  our  people  as  well  as  the  hearts, 
more  than  shaking  the  kaleidoscope  of  hurried  spec- 
tacles, in  days  of  a  growing  activity  of  the  head. 

Gower  Woodseer  could  not  know  that  he  was  drawn 
on  to  fortune  and  the  sight  of  his  Hesper  by  Admiral 
Fakenham's  order  that  the  visitor  was  to  stay  at  his 
house  until  he  should  be  able  to  quit  his  bed,  and  jour- 
ney with  him  to  London,  doctor  or  no  doctor.  The 
doctor  would  not  hear  of  it.  The  admiral  threatened 
it  every  night  for  the  morning,  every  morning  for  the 
night ;  and  Gower  had  to  submit  to  postponements  bale- 
fully  affecting  his  linen.  Eemonstrance  was  not  to  be 
thought  of ;  for  at  a  mere  show  of  reluctance  the  courtly 
admiral  flushed,  frowned,  and  beat  the  bed  where  he 
lay,  a  gouty  volcano.  Gower's  one  shirt  was  passing 
through  the  various  complexions,  and  had  approached 
the  Nubian  on  its  way  to  negro.  His  natural  candour 
checked  the  downward  course.  He  mentioned  to  Mrs. 
Carthew  with  incidental  gravity,  on  a  morning  at  break- 
fast, that  this  article  of  his  attire  "was  beginning  to 
resemble  London  snow."  She  was  amused;  she  prom- 
ised him  a  change  more  resembling  country  snow. 

"  It  will  save  me  from  buttoning  so  high  up,"  he  said, 
as  he  thanked  her. 

She  then  remembered  the  daily  increase  of  stiffness 
in  his  figure :  and  a  reflection  upon  his  patient  waiting, 
and  simpleness,  and  lexicographer  speech  to  expose  his 


STUDIES   IN  FOG,   ETC.  265 

minor  needs,  touched  her  unused  sense  of  humour  on 
the  side  where  it  is  tender  in  women,  from  being 
motherly. 

In  consequence,  she  spoke  of  him  with  a  pleading 
warmth  to  the  Countess  Livia,  who  had  come  down 
to  see  the  admiral  "concerning  an  absurd  but  annoy- 
ing rumour  running  over  London."  Gower  was  out  for 
a  walk.  He  knew  of  the  affair,  iVIrs.  Carthew  said,  for 
an  introduction  to  her  excuses  of  his  clothing. 

"  But  I  know  the  man,"  said  Livia.  "  Lord  Fleet- 
wood picked  him  up  somewhere,  and  brought  him  to 
us.     Clever.     Why,  is  he  here  ?  " 

"  He  is  here,  sent  to  the  admiral,  as  I  understand, 
my  lady." 

"  Sent  by  whom  ?  " 

Having  but  a  weak  vocabulary  to  defend  a  delicate 
position,  Mrs.  Carthew  stuttered  into  evasions,  after 
the  way  of  ill-armed  persons ;  and  naming  herself  a 
stranger  to  the  circumstances,  she  feebly  suggested 
that  the  admiral  ought  not  to  be  disturbed  before  the 
doctor's  next  visit;  Mr.  Woodseer  had  been  allowed 
to  sit  by  his  bed  yesterday  only  for  ten  minutes,  to 
divert  him  with  his  talk.  She  protected  in  this 
wretched  manner  the  poor  gentleman  she  sacrificed, 
and  emitted  such  a  smell  of  secresy,  that  Livia  wrote 
three  words  on  her  card,  for  it  to  be  taken  to  Admiral 
Baldwin  at  once.  Mrs.  Carthew  supplicated  faintly ; 
she  was  unheeded. 


266  THE  AMAZING   MAERIAGB 

The  Countess  of  Fleetwood  mounted  the  stairs  —  to 
descend  them  with  the  knowledge  of  her  being  the 
Dowager  Countess  of  Fleetwood !  Henrietta  had  spoken 
of  the  Countess  of  Fleetwood's  hatred  of  the  title  of 
Dowager.  But  when  Lady  Fleetwood  had  the  fact  from 
the  admiral,  would  she  forbear  to  excite  him  ?  If  she 
repudiated  it,  she  would  provoke  him  to  fire  "one  of 
his  broadsides,"  as  they  said  in  the  family,  to  assert 
it;  and  that  might  exhaust  him;  and  there  was  peril 
in  that.  And  who  was  guilty  ?  Mrs.  Carthew  con- 
fessed her  guilt,  asking  how  it  could  have  been  avoided. 
She  made  appeal  to  Gower  on  his  return,  transfixing 
him. 

]S"ot  only  is  he  no  philosopher  who  has  an  idol,  he 
has  to  learn  that  he  cannot  think  rationally;  his  due 
sense  of  weight  and  measure  is  lost,  the  choice  of  his 
thoughts  as  well.  He  was  in  the  house  with  his  de- 
voutly, simply  worshipped,  pearl  of  women,  and  his 
whole  mind  fell  to  work  without  ado  upon  the  extrava- 
gant height  of  the  admiral's  shirt-collar  cutting  his  ears. 
The  very  beating  of  his  heart  was  perplexed  to  know 
whether  it  was  for  rapture  or  annoyance.  As  a  result 
he  was  but  histrionically  master  of  himself  when  the 
Countess  Livia  or  the  nimbus  of  the  lady  appeared  in 
the  room. 

She  received  his  bow;  she  directed  Mrs.  Carthew  to 
have  the  doctor  summoned  immediately.  The  remorse- 
ful woman  flew. 


STUDIES   IN  FOG,   ETC.  267 

"  Admiral  Fakenham  is  very  ill,  Mr.  Woodseer,  he  has 
had  distracting  news.  Oh,  no,  the  messenger  is  not 
blamed.  You  are  Lord  Fleetwood's  friend  and  will  not 
allow  him  to  be  prejudged.  He  will  be  in  town  shortly. 
I  know  him  well,  you  know  him ;  and  could  you  hear 
him  accused  of  cruelty  —  and  to  a  woman  ?  He  is  the 
soul  of  chivalry.  So,  in  his  way,  is  the  admiral.  If  he 
were  only  more  patient !  Let  us  wait  for  Lord  Fleet- 
wood's version.  I  am  certain  it  will  satisfy  me.  The 
admiral  wishes  you  to  step  up  to  him.  Be  very  quiet ; 
you  will  be ;  consent  to  everything.  I  was  unaware  of 
his  condition:  the  things  I  heard  were  incredible.  I 
hope  the  doctor  will  not  delay.  Now  go.  Beg  to  retire 
soon." 

Livia  spoke  under  her  breath;  she  had  fears. 

Admiral  Baldwin  lay  in  his  bed,  submitting  to  a 
nurse-woman  —  sign  of  extreme  exhaustion.  He  plucked 
strength  from  the  sight  of  Gower  and  bundled  the 
woman  out  of  the  room,  muttering:  '-Kill  myself? 
Not  half  so  quick  as  they'd  do  it.  I  can't  rest  for 
that  Whitechapel  of  yours.  Please  fetch  pen  and 
paper:  it's  a  letter." 

The  letter  began,  "Dear  Lady  Arpington." 

The  dictation  of  it  came  in  starts.  At  one  moment 
it  seemed  as  if  life's  ending  shook  the  curtains  on  our 
stage  and  were  about  to  lift.  An  old  friend  in  the 
reader  of  the  letter  would  need  no  excuse  for  its 
jerky  brevity.     It  said  that  his   pet  girl,  Miss  Kirby, 


268  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

was  married  to  the  Earl  of  Fleetwood  in  the  first 
week  of  last  month,  and  was  now  to  be  found  at  a 
shop  ISTo.  45,  Longways,  Whitechapel;  that  the  writer 
was  ill,  unable  to  stir;  that  he  would  be  in  London 
within  eight  and  forty  hours  at  farthest.  He  begged 
Lady  Arpington  to  send  dovvm  to  the  place  and  have 
the  young  countess  fetched  to  her,  and  keep  her 
until  he  came. 

Admiral  Baldwin  sat  up  to  sign  the  letter. 

"Yes,  and  write,  'miracles  happen  when  the  devil's 
abroad '  —  done  it !  "  he  said,  sinking  back.  "  Now  seal, 
you'll  find  wax — the  ring  at  my  watch-chain." 

He  sighed,  as  it  were  the  sound  of  his  very  last; 
he  lay  like  a  sleeper  twitched  by  a  dream.  There 
had  been  a  scene  with  Livia.  The  dictating  of  the 
letter  took  his  remainder  of  strength  out  of  him. 

Gower  called  in  the  nurse,  and  went  downstairs.  He 
wanted  the  address  of  Lady  Arpington's  town  house. 

"You  have  a  letter  for  her?"  said  Livia,  and  held 
her  hand  for  it  in  a  way  not  to  be  withstood. 

"There's  no  superscription,"  he  remarked. 

"I  will  see  to  that,  Mr.  Woodseer." 

"I  fancy  I  am  bound.  Lady  Fleetwood." 

"  By  no  means."  She  touched  his  arm.  "  You  are 
Lord  Fleetwood's  friend." 

A  slight  convulsion  of  the  frame  struck  the  admiral's 
shirt-collar  at  his  ears;  it  virtually  prostrated  him 
under   foot   of   a   lady   so   benign   in  overlooking    the 


STUDIES   IN  FOG,   ETC.  269 

spectacle  he  presented.  Still,  he  considered;  he  had 
wits  alive  enough  just  to  perceive  a  duty. 

"The  letter  was  entrusted  to  me,  Lady  Fleetwood.'' 

"  You  are  afraid  to  entrust  it  to  the  post  ? " 

"I  was  thinking  of  delivering  it   myself  in  town." 

"You  will  entrust  it  to  me." 

"Anything  on  earth  of  my  own." 

"The  treasure  would  be  valued.  This  you  confide 
to  my  care." 

"  It  is  important." 

"No." 

"Indeed  it  is." 

"  Say  that  it  is,  then.  It  is  quite  safe  with  me.  It 
may  be  important  that  it  should  not  be  delivered.  Are 
you  not  Lord  Fleetwood's  friend?  Lady  Arpington  is 
not  so  very,  very  prominent  in  the  list  with  you  and  me. 
Besides,  I  don't  think  she  has  come  to  town  yet.  She 
generally  sees  out  the  end  of  the  hunting  season.  Leave 
the  letter  to  me :  it  shall  go.  You,  with  your  keen  ob- 
servation missing  nothing,  have  seen  that  my  uncle  has 
not  his  whole  judgment  at  present.  There  are  two 
sides  to  a  case.  Lord  Fleetwood's  friend  will  know 
that  it  would  be  unfair  to  offer  him  up  to  his  enemies 
while  he  is  absent.  Things  going  favourably  here,  I 
drive  back  to  town  to-morrow,  and  I  hope  you  will 
accept  a  seat  in  my  carriage." 

He  delivered  his  courtliest;  he  was  riding  on  cloud. 

They  talked   of    Baden.      His   honourable   surrender 


270  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

of  her  defeated  purse  was  a  subject  for  gentle  humour 
with  her,  venturesome  compliment  with  him.  He 
spoke  well;  and  though  his  hands  were  clean  of  Sir 
Meeson  Corby's  reproach  of  them,  the  caricature  of 
presentable  men  blushed  absurdly  and  seemed  uneasy 
in  his  monstrous  collar.  The  touching  of  him  again 
would  not  be  required  to  set  him  pacing  to  her  steps. 
His  hang  of  the  head  testified  to  the  unerring  stamp 
of  a  likeness  Captain  Abrane  could  affix  with  a  stroke : 
he  looked  the  fiddler  over  his  bow,  playing  wonder- 
fully to  conceal  the  crack  of  a  string.  The  merit  of 
being  one  of  her  a.rmy  of  admirers  was  accorded  to 
him.     The  letter  to  Lady  Arpington  was   retained. 

Gower  deferred  the  further  mention  of  the  letter 
until  a  visit  to  the  admiral's  chamber  should  furnish 
an  excuse;  and  he  had  to  wait  for  it.  Admiral  Bald- 
win's condition  was  becoming  ominous.  He  sent 
messages  downstairs  by  the  doctor,  forbidding  his 
guest's  departure  until  they  two  could  make  the 
journey  together  next  day.  The  tortured  and  blissful 
young  man,  stripped  of  his  borrowed  philosopher's 
cloak,  hung  conscience-ridden  in  this  delicious  bower, 
which  was  perceptibly  an  antechamber  of  the  vaults, 
offering  him  the  study  he  thirsted  for,  shrank  from, 
and  mixed  with  his  cup  of  amorous  worship. 


FURTHER  GLIMPSES  OF  OUR  YOUNGER  MAN     271 


CHAPTEE  XXI 

IN   WHICH   WE   HAVE   FURTHER     GLIMPSES     OF    THE    WON- 
DROUS   MECHANISM    OF    OUR   YOUNGER    MAN 

The  report  of  Admiral  Baldwin  Fakenliam  as  hav- 
ing died  in  the  arms  of  a  stranger  visiting  the  house, 
hit  nearer  the  mark  than  usual.  He  yielded  his  last 
breath  as  Gower  Woodseer  was  lowering  him  to  his 
pillow,  shortly  after  a  husky  Avhisper  of  the  letter  to 
Lady  Arpington;  and  that  was  one  of  Gower's  crucial 
trials.  It  condemned  him,  for  the  pacifying  of  a 
dying  man,  to  the  murmur  and  shuffle,  which  was  a 
lie;  and  the  lie  burnt  him,  contributed  to  the  brand 
on  his  race.  He  and  his  father  upheld  a  solitary  bare 
staff,  where  the  Cambrian  flag  had  flown,  before  their 
people  had  been  trampled  in  mire,  to  do  as  the 
worms.  His  loathing  of  any  shadow  of  the  lie  was 
a  protest  on  behalf  of  Welsh  blood  against  an  English 
charge,  besides  the  passion  for  spiritual  cleanliness: 
without  which  was  no  comprehension,  therefore  no 
enjoyment,  of  nature  possible  to  him.  For  nature  is 
the  truth. 

He  begged  the  countess  to  let  him  have  the  letter; 
he  held  to  the  petition,  with  supplications;  he  spoke 
of  his  pledged  word,  his  honour;  and  her  countenance 
did  not  deny  to  such  an  object  as  she  beheld  the  right 


272  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

to  a  sense  of  honour.  "We  all  liave  the  sentiment, 
I  hope,  Mr.  Woodseer,"  she  said,  stupefying  the  wor- 
shipper, who  did  not  see  it  manifested.  There  was 
a  look  of  gentle  intimacy,  expressive  of  common 
grounds  between  them,  accompanying  the  dead  words. 
Mistress  of  the  letter,  and  the  letter  safe  under  lock, 
the  admiral  dead,  she  had  not  to  bestow  a  touch  of 
her  hand  on  his  coat-sleeve  in  declining  to  return 
it.  A  face  languidly  and  benevolently  querulous  was 
bent  on  him,  when  he,  so  clever  a  man,  resumed  his 
very  silly  petition. 

She  was  moon  out  of  cloud  at  a  change  of  the 
theme.  Gower  journeyed  to  London  without  the  letter, 
intoxicated,  and  conscious  of  poison;  enamoured  of  it, 
and  straining  for  health.  He  had  to  reflect  at  the  jour- 
ney's end,  that  he  had  picked  up  nothing  on  the  road, 
neither  a  thing  observed  nor  a  thing  imagined;  he  was 
a  troubled  pool  instead  of  a  flowing  river. 

The  best  help  to  health  for  him  was  a  day  in  his 
father's  house.  We  are  perpetually  at  our  comparisons 
of  ourselves  with  others ;  and  they  are  mostly  profitless ; 
but  the  man  carrying  his  religious  light,  to  light  the 
darkest  ways  of  his  fellows,  and  keeping  good  cheer, 
as  though  the  heart  of  him  ran  a  mountain  water 
through  the  grimy  region,  plucked  at  Gower  with  an 
envy  to  resemble  him  in  practice.  His  philosophy,  too, 
reproached  him  for  being  outshone.  Apart  from  his 
philosophy,  he  stood  confessed  a  bankrupt;  and  it  had 


FURTHER  GLIMPSES  OF  OUR  YOUNGER  MAN     273 

dwindled  to  near  extinction.  Adoration  of  a  woman 
takes  the  breath  out  of  philosophy.  And  if  one  had 
only  to  say  sheer  donkey,  he  consenting  to  be  driven  by 
her !  One  has  to  say  worse  in  this  case ;  for  the  words 
are,  liar  and  traitor. 

Carinthia's  attitude  toward  his  father  conduced  to 
his  emulous  respect  for  the  old  man,  below  whom,  and 
indeed  below  the  roadway  of  ordinary  principles  hedged 
with  dull  texts,  he  had  strangely  fallen.  The  sight  of 
her  lashed  him.  She  made  it  her  business  or  it  was  her 
pleasiu-e  to  go  the  rounds  beside  Mr.  Woodseer  visiting 
his  poor  people.  She  spoke  of  the  scenes  she  witnessed, 
and  threw  no  stress  on  the  wretchedness,  having  only 
the  wish  to  assist  in  ministering.  Probably  the  great 
wretchedness  bubbling  over  the  place  blunted  her  feel- 
ing of  loss  at  the  word  of  Admiral  Baldwin's  end ;  her 
bosom  sprang  up :  "  He  was  next  to  father,"  was  all  she 
said;  and  she  soon  reverted  to  this  and  that  house  of 
the  lodgings  of  poverty.  She  had  descended  on  the 
world.  There  was  of  course  a  world  outside  "White- 
chapel,  but  Whitechapel  was  hot  about  her ;  the  nests  of 
misery,  the  sharp  note  of  want  in  the  air,  tricks  of  an 
urchin  who  had  amused  her. 

As  to  the  place  itself,  she  had  no  judgment  to  pro-'' 
nounce,  except  that :    "  They  have  no  mornings  here " ; 
and    the    childish    remark    set    her    quivering   on  her 
heights,  like  one  seen  through  a  tear,  in  Gower's  mem-  \ 
ory.      Scarce    anything    of    her   hungry   impatience  to 


274  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

meet  her  husband  was  visible :  she  had  come  to  London 
to  meet  him;  she  hoped  to  meet  him  soon:  before  her 
brother's  return,  she  could  have  added.  She  mentioned 
the  goodness  of  Sarah  Winch  in  not  allowing  that  she 
was  a  burden  to  support.  Money  and  its  uses  had 
impressed  her;  the  quantity  possessed  by  some,  the 
utter  need  of  it  for  the  first  of  human  purposes  by 
others.  Her  speech  was  not  of  so  halting  or  foreign 
an  English.  She  grew  rapidly  wherever  she  was 
planted. 

Speculation  on  the  conduct  of  her  husband,  empty 
as  it  might  be,  was  necessitated  in  Gower.  He  pur- 
sued it,  and  listened  to  his  father  similarly  at  work: 
"A  young  lady  fit  for  any  station,  the  kindest  of  souls, 
a  born  charitable  human  creature,  void  of  pride,  near 
in  all  she  does  and  thinks  to  the  Shaping  Hand,  why 
should  her  husband  forsake  her  on  the  day  of  their 
nuptials !  She  is  most  gracious ;  the  simplicity  of  an 
infant.  Can  you  imagine  the  doing  of  an  injury  by  a 
man  to  a  woman  like  her?" 

Then  it  was  that  Gower  screwed  himself  to  say :  — 

"Yes,  I  can  imagine  it,  I'm  doing  it  myself.  I 
shall  be  doing  it  till  I've  written  a  letter  and  paid  a 
visit." 

He  took  a  meditative  stride  or  two  in  the  room, 
thinking  without  revulsion  of  the  Countess  Livia  under 
a  similitude  of  the  bell  of  the  plant  henbane,  and  that 
his  father  had  immunity  from  temptation  because  of 


FUETHER  GLIMPSES  OF   OUR  YOUNGER  MAN     275 

the  insensibility  to  beauty.  Out  of  which  he  passed 
to  the  writing  of  the  letter  to  Lord  Fleetwood,  in- 
forming his  lordship  that  he  intended  immediately  to 
deliver  a  message  to  the  Marchioness  of  Arpington 
from  Admiral  Baldwin  Fakenham,  in  relation  to  the 
Countess  of  Fleetwood.  A  duty  was  easily  done  by 
Gower  when  he  had  surmounted  the  task  of  conceiving 
his  resolution  to  do  it ;  and  this  task,  involving  an 
offence  to  the  Lady  Livia  and  intrusion  of  his  name 
on  a  nobleman's  recollection,  ranked  next  in  severity 
to  the  chopping  off  of  his  fingers  by  a  man  suspecting 
them  of  the  bite  of  rabies. 

An  interview  with  Lady  Arpington  was  granted  him 
the  following  day. 

She  was  a  florid,  aquiline,  loud-voiced  lady,  evidently 
having  no  seat  for  her  v/onderments,  after  his  account 
of  the  origin  of  his  acquaintance  with  the  admiral  had 
quieted  her  suspicions.  The  world  had  only  to  stand 
beside  her,  and  it  would  hear  what  she  had  heard. 
She  rushed  to  the  conclusion  that  Lord  Fleetwood 
had  married  a  person  of  no  family. 

"Eeally,  really,  that  young  man's  freaks  appear 
designed  for  the  express  purpose  of  heightening  our 
amazement ! "  she  exclaimed.  "  He  won't  easily  get 
beyond  a  wife  in  the  east  of  London,  at  a  shop;  but 
there's  no  knowing.  Any  wish  of  Admiral  Baldwin 
Fakenham's  I  hold  sacred.  At  least  I  can  see  for 
myself.      You   can't   tell   me   more   of    the   facts  ?     If 


276  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Lord  Fleetwood's  in  town,  I  will  call  him  here  at  once. 
I  will  drive  down  to  this  address  you  give  me.  She 
is  a  civil  person?" 

"Her  breeding  is  perfect,"  said  Gower. 

"Perfect  breeding,  you  say?"  Lady  Arpington  was 
reduced  to  a  murmur.  She  considered  the  speaker: 
his  outlandish  garb,  his  unprotesting  self-possession. 
He  spoke  good  English  by  habit,  her  ear  told  her. 
She  was  of  an  eminence  to  judge  of  a  man  impartially, 
even  to  the  sufferance  of  an  opinion  from  him,  on  a 
subject  that  lesser  ladies  would  have  denied  to  his 
clothing.  Outwardly  simple,  naturally  frank,  though  a 
tangle  of  the  complexities  inwardly,  he  was  a  touch- 
stone for  true  aristocracy,  as  the  humblest  who  bear 
the  main  elements  of  it  must  be.  Certain  humorous 
turns  in  his  conversation  won  him  an  amicable  smile 
when  he  bowed  to  leave:  they  were  the  needed  finish 
of  a  favourable  impression. 

One  day  later  the  earl  arrived  in  town,  read  Gower 
Woodseer's  brief  words,  and  received  the  consequently 
expected  summons,  couched  in  a  great  lady's  plain 
imperative.  She  was  connected  with  his  family  on  the 
paternal  side. 

He  went  obediently :  not  unwillingly,  let  the  deputed 
historian  of  the  Marriage,  turning  over  documents,  here 
say.  He  went  to  Lady  Arpington  disposed  for  marital 
humaneness  and  jog-trot  harmony,  by  condescension; 
equivalent  to  a  submitting  to  the  drone  of  an  incessant 


FURTHER  GLIMPSES  OF  OUR  YOUNGER  MAN     277 

psalm  at  the  drum  of  the  ear.  He  was,  in  fact,  rather 
more  than  inclined  that  way.  When  very  young,  at  the 
age  of  thirteen,  a  mood  of  religious  fervour  had  spirit- 
ualized the  dulness  of  Protestant  pew  and  pulpit  for  him. 
Another  fit  of  it,  in  the  Roman  Catholic  direction,  had 
proposed,  during  his  latest  dilemma,  to  relieve  him  of 
the  burden  of  his  pledged  word.  He  had  plunged  for 
a  short  space  into  the  rapturous  contemplation  of  a 
monastic  life  —  '  the  clean  soul  for  the  macerated  flesh,' 
as  that  fellow  Woodseer  said  once  :  and  such  as  his  friend, 
the  Eoman  Catholic  Lord  Feltre,  moodily  talked  of  get- 
ting in  his  intervals.  He  had  gone  down  to  a  young  and 
novel  trial  establishment  of  English  penitents  in  the  for- 
est of  a  Midland  county,  and  had  watched  and  envied, 
and  seen  the  escape  from  a  lifelong  bondage  to  the  ^beau- 
tiful Gorgon,'  under  cover  of  a  white  flannel  frock.  The 
world  pulled  hard,  and  he  gave  his  body  into  chains  of  a 
woman,  to  redeem  his  word. 

But  there  was  a  plea  on  behalf  of  this  woman.  The 
life  she  offered  might  have  psalmic  iteration;  the  dead 
monotony  of  it  in  prospect  did,  nevertheless,  exorcise  a 
devil.  Carinthia  promised,  it  might  seem,  to  chase  and 
keep  the  black  beast  out  of  him  permanently,  as  she 
could,  he  now  conceived:  for  since  the  day  of  the 
marriage  with  her,  the  devil  inhabiting  him  had  at  least 
been  easier,  ^up  in  a  corner.' 

He  held  an  individual  memory  of  his  bride,  rose- 
veiled,  secret  to  them  both,  that  made  them  one,  by  sub- 


278  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

duing  him.  For  it  was  a  charm  ;  an  actual  feminine,  an 
unanticipated  personal,  charm;  past  reach  of  tongue  to 
name,  wordless  in  thought.  There,  among  the  folds  of 
the  incense  vapours  of  our  heart's  holy  of  holies,  it  hung; 
and  it  was  rare,  it  was  distinctive  of  her,  and  alluring,  if 
one  consented  to  melt  to  it,  and  accepted  for  compensa- 
tion the  exorcising  of  a  devil. 

Oh,  but  no  mere  devil  by  title!  —  a  very  devil.  It 
'  was  alert  and  frisky,  flushing,  filling  the  thin  cold  idea 
of  Henrietta  at  a  thought ;  and  in  the  thought  it  made 
Carinthia's  intimate  charm  appear  as  no  better  than  a 
thing  to  enrich  a  beggar,  while  he  knew  that  kings  could 
never  command  the  charm.  ISTot  love,  only  the  bathing 
in  Henrietta's  incomparable  beauty  and  the  desire  to  be, 
desire  to  have  been,  the  casket  of  it,  broke  the  world  to 
tempest  and  lightnings  at  a  view  of  Henrietta  the 
married  woman  —  married  to  the  brother  of  the  woman 
calling  him  husband :  —  "  it  is  my  husband."  The  young 
tyrant  of  wealth  could  have  avowed  that  he  did  not  love 
Henrietta;  but  not  the  less  was  he  in  the  swing  of  a 
whirlwind  at  the  hint  of  her  loving  the  man  she  had 
married.     Did  she  ?     It  might  be  tried. 

She?  That  Henrietta  is  one  of  the  creatures  who 
love  pleasure,  love  flattery,  love  their  beauty:  they 
cannot  love  a  man.  Or  the  love  is  a  ship  that  will 
not  sail  a  sea. 

Now,  if  the  fact  were  declared  and  attested,  if  her 
shallowness  were   seen  proved,  one  might   get  free   of 


FURTHER  GLIMPSES  OF  OUR  YOUNGER  MAN     279 

the  devil  she  plants  in  the  breast.  Absolutely  to 
despise  her  would  be  release,  and  it  would  allow  of 
his  tasting  Carinthia's  charm,  reluctantly  acknowledged; 
not  'money  of  the  country'  beside  that  golden  Henri- 
etta's. 

Yet  who  can  say  ?  —  women  are  such  deceptions. 
Often  their  fairest,  apparently  sweetest,  when  brought 
to  the  keenest  of  the  tests,  are  graceless;  or  worse, 
artificially  consonant ;  in  either  instance  barren  of  the 
poetic.  Thousands  of  the  confidently  expectant  among 
men  have  been  unbewitched;  a  lamentable  process; 
and  the  grimly  reticent  and  the  loudly  discursive  are 
equally  eloquent  of  the  pretty  general  disillusion. 
How  they  loathe  and  tear  the  mask  of  the  sham 
attraction  that  snatched  them  to  the  hag  yoke,  and 
fell  away  to  show  its  grisly  horrors  within  the  round 
of  the  month,  if  not  the  second  enumeration  of  twelve 
by  the  clock !  Fleetwood  had  heard  certain  candid 
seniors  talk,  delivering  their  minds  in  superior  appre- 
ciation of  unpretentious  boor  wenches,  nature's  prod- 
ucts, not  esteemed  by  him.  Well,  of  a  truth,  she  — 
"Eed  Hair  and  Eugged  Brows,"  as  the  fellow  Wood- 
seer  had  called  her,  in  alternation  with  ^'  Mountain 
Face  to  Sun"  —  she  at  the  unveiling  was  gentle,  sur- 
passingly; graceful  in  the  furnace  of  the  trial.  She 
wore  through  the  critic  ordeal  his  burning  sensitive- 
ness to  grace  and  delicacy  cast  about  a  woman,  and 
was  rather  better  than  not  withered  by  it. 


280  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

On  the  borders  between  maidenly  and  wifely,  she,  a 
thing  of  flesh  like  other  daughters  of  earth,  had 
impressed  her  sceptical  lord,  inclining  to  contempt  of 
her  and  detestation  of  his  bargain,  as  a  flitting  hue, 
ethereal,  a  transfiguration  of  earthliness  in  the  core  of 
the  earthly  furnace.  And  how  ?  —  but  that  it  must 
have  been  the  naked  shining  forth  of  her  character, 
startled  to  show  itself  :  —  "it  is  my  husband  "  :  —  it 
must  have  been  love. 

The  love  that  they  versify,  and  strum  on  guitars, 
and  go  crazy  over,  and  end  by  roaring  at  as  the  delu- 
sion; this  common  bloom  of  the  ripeness  of  a  season; 
this  would  never  have  utterly  captured  a  sceptic,  to 
vanquish  him  in  his  mastery,  snare  him  in  her  sur- 
render. It  must  have  been  the  veritable  passion:  a 
flame  kept  alive  by  vestal  ministrants  in  the  yew-wood 
of  the  forest  of  Old  Eomance ;  planted  only  in  the 
breasts  of  very  favourite  maidens.  Lov^  had  eyes, 
love  had  a  voice  that  night,  —  love  was  the  explicable 
magic  lifting  terrestrial  to  seraphic.  Though,  true,  she 
had  not  Henrietta's  golden  smoothness  of  beauty. 
Henrietta,  illumined  with  such  a  love,  would  outdo 
all  legends,  all  dreams  of  the  tale  of  love.  Would 
she?  For  credulous  men  she  would  be  golden  coin  of 
the  currency.  She  would  not  have  a  particular  wild 
flavour:  charm  as  of  the  running  doe  that  has  taken 
a  dart  and  rolls  an  eye  to  burst  the  hunter's  heart 
with  pity. 


A  RIGHT-MINDED   GREAT   LADY  281 

Fleetwood  went  his  way  to  Lady  Arpington  almost 
complacently,  having  fought  and  laid  his  wilder  self. 
He  might  be  likened  to  the  doctor's  patient  entering  the 
chemist's  shop,  with  a  prescription  for  a  drug  of  heal- 
ing virtue,  upon  which  the  palate  is  as  little  consulted 
as  a  robustious  lollypoxD  boy  in  the  household  of  cere- 
monial parents,  who  have  rung  for  the  troop  of  their 
orderly  domestics  to  sit  in  a  row  and  hearken  the  in- 
tonation of  good  words. 


CHAPTEE  XXII 

A   RIGHT-MINDED    GREAT   LADY 

The  bow,  the  welcome,  and  the  introductory  remarks 
passed  rapidly  as  the  pull  on  two  sides  of  a  curtain  open- 
ing on  a  scene  that  stiffens  courtliness  to  hard  attention. 

After  the  names  of  Admiral  Baldwin  and  ^the  Mr. 
Woodseer,'  the  name  of  Whitechapel  was  mentioned  by 
Lady  Arpington.  It  might  have  been  the  name  of  any 
other  place. 

"  Ah,  so  far,  then,  I  have  to  instruct  you,"  she  said, 
observing  the  young  earl.  "  I  drove  down  there  yes- 
terday. I  saw  the  lady  calling  herself  Countess  of 
Fleetwood.     By  right  ?     She  was  a  Miss  Kirby." 

^'She  has  the  right,"  Fleetwood  said,  standing  well 
up  out  of  a  discharge  of  musketry. 


282  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

"  Marriage  not  contested.  You  knew  of  her  being  in 
that  place  ?  —  I  can't  describe  it." 

"  Your  ladyship  will  pardon  me  ?  " 

London's  frontier  of  barbarism  was  named  for  him 
again,  and  in  a  tone  to  penetrate. 

He  refrained  from  putting  the  question  of  how  she 
had  come  there. 

As  iron  as  he  looked,  he  said :  "  She  stays  there  by 
choice. " 

The  great  lady  tapped  her  foot  on  the  floor. 

"  You  are  not  acquainted  with  the  district." 

"  One  of  my  men  comes  out  of  it." 

"The  coming  out  of  it!  .  .  .  However,  I  under- 
stand her  story,  that  she  travelled  from  a  village  inn, 
where  she  had  been  left — without  resources.  She 
waited  weeks;  I  forget  how  many.  She  has  a  de- 
scription of  maid  in  attendance  on  her.  She  came 
to  London  to  find  her  husband.  You  were  at  the 
mines,  we  heard.  Her  one  desire  is  to  meet  her 
husband.  But,  goodness !  Fleetwood,  why  do  you 
frown?  You  acknowledge  the  marriage,  she  has  the 
name  of  the  church;  she  was  married  out  of  that 
old  Lord  Levellier's  house.  You  drove  her  —  I  won't 
repeat  the  flighty  business.  You  left  her,  and  she 
did  her  best  to  follow  you.  Will  the  young  men,  of 
our  time  not  learn  that  life  is  no  longer  a  game  when 
they  have  a  woman  for  partner  in  the  match!  You 
don't  complain  of  her  flavour  of  a  foreign  manner  ?     She 


A  RIGHT-MINDED   GREAT   LADY  283 

can't  be  so  very  .  .  .  Admiral  Baldwin's  daughter  has 
married  her  brother ;  and  he  is  a  military  officer.  She 
has  germs  of  breeding,  wants  only  a  little  rub  of  the 
world  to  smooth  her.  Speak  to  the  point :  —  do  you 
meet  her  here  ?     Do  you  refuse  ?  " 

"  At  present  ?     I  do." 

"  Something  has  to  be  done." 

"  She  was  bound  to  stay  where  I  left  her." 

"  You  are  bound  to  provide  for  her  becomingly." 

"  Provision  shall  be  made,  of  course." 

"The  story  will  .  .  .  unless — and  quickly,  too." 

"  I  know,  I  know  ! " 

Fleetwood  had  the  clang  of  all  the  bells  of  London 
chiming  Whitechapel  at  him  in  his  head,  and  he  be- 
trayed the  irritated  tyrant  ready  to  decree  fire  and 
sword,  for  the  defence  or  solace  of  his  tender  sensi- 
bilities. 

The  black  flash  flew. 

"It's  a  thing  to  mend,  as  well  as  one  can,"  Lady 
Arpington  said.  "  I  am  not  inquisitive  :  you  had  your 
reasons  or  chose  to  act  without  any.  Get  her  away 
from  that  place.  She  won't  come  to  me  unless  it's  to 
meet  her  husband.  Ah,  well,  temper  does  not  solve 
your  problem;  husband  you  are,  if  you  married  her. 
We'll  leave  the  husband  undiscussed :  with  this  re- 
serve, that  it  seems  to  me  men  are  now  beginning  to 
play  the  misunderstood." 

"I  hope  they  know  themselves  better,"  said  Fleet- 


284  THE   AMAZING  MAREIAGE 

wood;  and  he  begged  for  the  name  and  number  of  the 
house  in  the  Whitechapel  street,  where  she  who  was 
discernibly  his  enemy,  and  the  deadliest  of  enemies, 
had  now  her  dwelling. 

Her  immediate  rush  to  that  place,  the  fixing  of  her- 
self there  for  an  assault  on  him,  was  a  move  worthy 
the  daughter  of  the  rascal  Old  Buccaneer ;  it  compelled 
to  urgent  measures.  He,  as  he  felt  horribly  in  pencil- 
ling her  address,  acted  under  compulsion ;  and  a  woman 
prodded  the  goad.  Her  mask  of  ingenuousness  was 
flung  away  for  a  look  of  craft,  which  could  be  power; 
and  with  her  changed  aspect  his  tolerance  changed  to 
hatred. 

"A  shop,"  Lady  Arpington  explained  for  his  better 
direction :  ''  potatoes,  vegetable  stuff.  Honest  people,  I 
am  to  believe.  She  is  indifferent  to  her  food,  she  says. 
She  works,  helping  one  of  their  ministers  —  one  of  their 
denominations :  heaven  knows  what  they  call  them- 
selves !  Anything  to  escape  from  the  Church !  She's 
likely  to  become  a  Methodist.  With  Lord  Feltre  pros- 
elytizing for  his  Papist  creed.  Lord  Pitscrew  a  declared 
Mohammedan,  we  shall  have  a  pretty  English  aristoc- 
racy in  time.  Well,  she  may  claim  to  belong  to  it 
now.  She  would  not  be  persuaded  against  visitations  to 
pestiferous  hovels.  What  else  is  there  to  do  in  such 
a  place !  She  goes  about  catching  diseases  to  avoid 
bilious  melancholy  in  the  dark  back  room  of  a  small 
greengrocer's   shop  in  Whitechapel.      There  you  have 


A   RIGHT-MINDED   GREAT   LADY  285 

the  word  for  tlie  Countess  of  Fleetwood's  present 
address." 

It  drenched  him  with  ridicule. 

"  I  am  indebted  to  your  ladyship  for  the  information," 
he  said,  and  maintained  his  rigidity. 

The  great  lady  stiffened. 

"I  am  obliged  to  ask  you  whether  you  intend  to  act 
on  it  at  once.  The  admiral  has  gone;  I  am  in  some 
sort  deputed  as  a  guardian  to  her,  and  I  warn  you  — 
very  well,  very  well.  In  your  o^ti  interests,  it  will  be. 
If  she  is  left  there  another  two  or  three  days,  the  name 
of  the  place  will  stick  to  her." 

"  She  has  baptized  herself  with  it  already,  I  imagine," 
said  Fleetwood.     "  She  will  have  Esslemont  to  live  in." 

"There  will  be  more  than  one  to  speak  as  to  that. 
You  should  know  her." 

"I  do  not  know  her." 

"You  married  her." 

"The  circumstances  are  admitted." 

"  If  I  may  hazard  a  guess,  she  is  imlikely  to  come  to 
terms  without  a  previous  interview.  She  is  bent  on 
meeting  you." 

"I  am  to  be  subjected  to  further  annoyance,  or  she 
will  take  the  name  of  the  place  she  at  present  inhabits, 
and  bombard  me  mth  it.     Those  are  the  terms." 

"  She  has  a  brother  living,  I  remind  you." 

"  State  the  deduction,  if  you  please,  my  lady." 

"  She  is  not  of  a  totally  inferior  family." 


286  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

^^She  had  a  father  famous  over  England  as  the  Old 
Buccaneer,  and  is  a  diligent  reader  of  his  book  of 
Maxims  for  Men." 

"Dear  me !  Then  Kirby  —  Captain  Kirby  !  I  remem- 
ber. That's  her  origin,  is  it?"  the  great  lady  cried, 
illumined.  "My  mother  used  to  talk  of  the  Cressett 
scandal.  Old  Lady  Arpington,  too.  At  any  rate,  it 
ended  in  their  union  —  the  formalities  were  properly 
respected,  as  soon  as  they  could  be." 

"I  am  unaware." 

"  I  detest  such  a  tone  of  speaking.  Speaking  as  you 
do  now  —  married  to  the  daughter  ?  You  are  not  your- 
self. Lord  Fleetwood." 

"  Quite,  ma'  am,  let  me  assure  you.  Otherwise  the 
Kirby-Cressetts  would  be  dictating  to  me  from  the 
muzzle  of  one  of  the  old  rapscallion's  Maxims.  They 
will  learn  that  I  am  myself." 

"You  don't  improve  as  you  proceed.  I  tell  you  this, 
you'll  not  have  me  for  a  friend.  You  have  your  troops 
of  satellites ;  but  take  it  as  equal  to  a  prophecy,  you 
won't  have  London  with  you ;  and  you'll  hear  of  Lord 
Fleetwood  and  his  Whitechapel  Countess  till  your  ears 
ache." 

The  preluding  box  on  them  reddened  him. 

"  She  will  have  the  offer  of  Esslemont." 

"  Undertake  to  persuade  her  in  person." 

"  I  have  spoken  on  that  head." 

"Well,  I  may  be  mistaken,  —  I  fancied  it  before  I 


A  BIGHT-MINDED   GREAT   LADY  287 

knew  of  tlie  pair  she  springs  from:  you  won't  get  her 
consent  to  anj^thing  without  your  consenting  to  meet  her. 
Surely  it's  the  manlier  way.  It  might  be  settled  for 
to-morrow,  here,  in  this  room.     She  prays  to  meet  you.'^ 

With  an  indicated  gesture  of  "Save  me  from  it," 
Fleetwood  bowed. 

He  left  no  friend  thinking  over  the  riddle  of  his  con- 
duct. She  was  a  loud-voiced  lady,  given  to  strike  out 
phrases.  The  'Whitechapel  Countess'  of  the  wealthi- 
est nobleman  of  his  day  was  heard  by  her  on  London's 
wagging  tongue.  She  considered  also  that  he  ought  at 
least  to  have  propitiated  her;  he  was  in  the  position 
requiring  of  him  to  do  something  of  the  kind,  and  he 
had  shown  instead  the  dogged  pride  which  calls  for  a 
whip.  Fool  as  he  must  have  been  to  go  and  commit 
himself  to  marriage  with  a  girl  of  whom  he  knew  noth- 
ing or  little,  the  assumption  of  pride  belonged  to  the 
order  of  impudent  disguises  intolerable  to  behold  and 
not,  in  a  modern  manner,  castigate. 

Notwithstanding  a  dislike  of  the  Dowager  Countess 
of  Fleetwood,  Lady  Arpington  paid  Livia  an  afternoon 
visit ;  and  added  thereby  to  the  stock  of  her  knowledge 
and  the  grounds  of  her  disapprobation. 

Down  in  Whitechapel,  it  Avas  known  to  the  Winch 
girls  and  the  Woodseers,  that  Captain  Kirby  and  his 
wife  had  spent  the  bitterest  of  hours  in  vainly  striving 
to  break  their  immovable  sister's  will  to  remain  there. 

At  the  tea-time  of  simple  people,  who  make  it  a  meal, 


288  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

Gower's  appetite  for  the  home-made  bread  of  Mary  Jones 
was  checked  by  the  bearer  of  a  short  note  from  Lord 
Fleetwood.  The  half-dozen  lines  were  cordial,  breath- 
ing of  their  walk  in  the  Austrian  highlands,  and  naming 
a  renowned  city  hotel  for  dinner  that  day,  the  hour 
seven,  the  reply  yes  or  no  by  messenger. 

"  But  we  are  man  to  man,  so  there's  no  '  No '  between 
us  two,"  the  note  said,  reviving  a  scene  of  rosy  crag  and 
pine  forest,  where  there  had  been  philosophical  fun  over 
the  appropriate  sexes  of  those  our  most  important  fight- 
ing—  ultimately,  we  will  hope,  to  be  united — syllables, 
and  the  when  for  men,  the  when  for  women,  to  select  the 
one  of  them  as  their  weapon. 

Under  the  circumstances,  Gower  thought  such  a  piece 
of  writing  to  him  magnanimous. 

"  It  may  be  the  solution,"  his  father  remarked. 

Both  had  the  desire ;  and  Gower's  reply  was  the  yes, 
our  brave  male  word,  supposed  to  be  not  so  compromis- 
ing to  men  in  the  employment  of  it  as  a  form  of  acqui- 
escence rather  than  insistent  pressure. 


CHAPTEB  XXIII 

IN    DAME    gossip's    VEIN 

Right  soon  the  London  pot  began  to  bubble.     There 
was  a  marriage. 

There  are  marriages  by  the  thousand  every  day  of  the 


IN  DAME   gossip's   VEIN  289 

year  that  is  not  consecrated  to  prayer  for  the  forgiveness 
of  our  sins,  the  Old  Buccaneer,  writing  it  with  simple 
intent,  says,  by  way  of  preface  to  a  series  of  Maxims 
for  men  who  contemplate  acceptance  of  the  yoke. 

This  was  a  marriage  high  as  the  firmament  over 
common  occurrences,  black  as  Erebus  to  confound;  it 
involved  the  wreck  of  expectations,  disastrous  eclipse 
of  a  sovereign  luminary  in  the  splendour  of  his  rise, 
Phaethon's  descent  to  the  Shades  through  a  smoking 
and  a  crackling  world.  Asserted  here,  verified  there, 
the  rumour  gathered  volume,  and  from  a  serpent  of 
vapour  resolved  to  sturdy  concrete  before  it  was  tan- 
gible. Contradiction  retired  into  corners,  only  to  be 
swept  out  of  them.  For  this  marriage,  abominable  to 
hear  of,  was  of  so  wonderful  a  sort,  that  the  story 
filled  the  mind,  and  the  discrediting  of  the  story 
threatened  the  great  world's  cranium  with  a  vacuity 
yet  more  monstrously  abominable. 

For  he,  the  planet  Croesus  of  his  time,  recently,  scarce 
later  than  last  night,  a  glorious  object  of  the  mid-heavens 
above  the  market,  has  been  enveloped,  caught,  gobbled 
up  by  one  of  the  nameless  little  witches  riding  after 
dusk  the  way  of  the  wind  on  broomsticks  —  by  one  of 
them!  She  caught  him  like  a  fly  in  the  hand  off  a 
pane  of  glass,  gobbled  him  with  the  customary  facility 
of  a  pecking  pullet. 

But  was  the  planet  Croesus  of  his  time  a  young  man 
to  be  so  caught,  so  gobbled  ? 
u 


290  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

There  is  tlie  mystery  of  it.  On  his  coming  of  age, 
that  young  man  gave  sign  of  his  having  a  city  head. 
He  put  his  guardians  deliberately  aside,  had  his 
lawyers  and  bailiffs  and  stewards  thoroughly  under 
control:  managed  a  particularly  difficult  step-mother; 
escaped  the  snares  of  her  lovely  cousin;  and  drove 
his  team  of  sycophants  exactly  the  road  he  chose  to 
go  and  no  other.     He  had  a  will. 

The  world  accounted  him  wildish  ? 

Always  from  his  own  offset,  to  his  own  ends. 
Never  for  another's  dictation  or  beg-uilement.  Never 
for  a  woman.  He  was  born  with  a  suspicion  of  the 
sex.  (Poetry  decorated  women,  he  said,  to  lime  and 
drag  men  in  the  foulest  ruts  of  proseK 

We  are  to  believe  he  has   been  effectively  captured? 

It  is  positively  a  marriage;  he  admits  it. 

Where  celebrated  ? 

There  we  are  at  hoodman-blind  for  the  moment. 
Three  counties  claim  the  church;  two  ends  of  London. 

She  is  not  a  person  of  society,  lineage? 

Nor  of  beauty.  She  is  a  witch;  ordinarily  petti- 
coated  and  not  squeaking  like  a  shrew-mouse  in  her 
flights,  but  not  a  whit  less  a  moon-shade  witch.  The 
kind  is  famous.  Fairy  tales  and  terrible  romances  tell 
of  her ;  she  is  just  as  much  at  home  in  life,  and  springs 
usually  from  the  mire  to  enthral  our  knightliest.  Is  it 
a  popular  hero?  She  has  him,  sooner  or  later.  A 
planet  Croesus?     He  falls  to  her. 


IN   DAME   gossip's   VEIN  291 

That  is,  if  his  people  fail  to  attach  him  in  legal  bonds 
to  a  damsel  of  a  corresponding  birth  on  the  day  when 
he  is  breeched. 

Small  is  her  need  to  be  young  —  especially  if  it  is 
the  man  who  is  very  young.  She  is  the  created  among 
women  armed  with  the  deadly  instinct  for  the  motive 
force  in  men,  and  shameless  to  attract  it.  Self-respect- 
ing women  treat  men  as  their  tamed  housemates.  She 
blows  the  horn  of  the  wild  old  forest,  irresistible  to  the 
animal.  0  the  droop  of  the  eyelids,  the  curve  of  a 
lip,  the  rustle  of  silks,  the  much  heart,  the  neat  ankle ; 
and  the  sparkling  agreement,  the  reserve  —  the  motherly 
feminine  petition  that  she  may  retain  her  own  small 
petted  babe  of  an  opinion,  legitimate  or  not,  by  per- 
mission of  superior  authority !  —  proof  at  once  of  her 
intelligence  and  her  appreciativeness.  Her  infinitesimal 
spells  are  seen;  yet,  despite  experience,  the  magnetism 
in  their  repulsive  display  is  barely  apprehended  by 
sedate  observers  until  the  astounding  capture  is  pro- 
claimed. It  is  visible  enough  then :  —  and  0  men ! 
0  morals!  If  she  can  but  trick  the  smallest  bit  in 
stooping,  she  has  the  pick  of  men. 

Our  present  sample  shows  her  to  be  young:  she  is 
young  and  a  foreigner.  Mr.  Chumley  Potts  vouches 
for  it.  Speaks  foreign  English.  He  thinks  her  more 
ninny  than  knave:  she  is  the  tool  of  a  wily  plotter, 
picked  up  off  the  highway  road  by  Lord  Fleetwood  as 
soon  as  he  had  her  in  his  eye.     Sir  Meeson  Corby  wrings 


292  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

his  frilled  hands  to  depict  the  horror  of  the  hands  of 
that  tramp  the  young  lord  had  her  from.  They  afflict 
him  malariously  still.  The  man,  he  says,  the  man  as 
well  was  an  infatuation,  because  he  talks  like  a  Diction- 
ary Cheap  Jack,  and  may  have  had  an  education  and 
dropped  into  vagrancy,  owing  to  indiscretions.  Lord 
Fleetwood  ran  about  in  Germany  repeating  his  remarks. 
But  the  man  is  really  an  accomplished  violinist,  we  hear. 
She  dances  the  tambourine  business.  A  sister  of  the 
man,  perhaps,  if  we  must  be  charitable.  They  are, 
some  say,  a  couple  of  Hungarian  gypsies  Lord  F.  found 
at  a  show  and  brought  over  to  England,  and  soon  had 
it  on  his  conscience  that  he  ought  to  marry  her,  like 
the  Quixote  of  honour  that  he  is;  which  is  equal  to 
saying  crazy,  as  there  is  no  doubt  his  mother  was. 

The  marriage  is  no  longer  disputable ;  poor  Lady 
Fleetwood,  whatever  her  faults  as  a  stepmother,  does 
no  longer  delay  the  celebration  of  a  marriage;  though 
she  might  reasonably  discredit  any  such  story  if  he, 
on  the  evening  of  the  date  of  the  wedding  day,  was 
at  a  ball,  seen  by  her  at  the  supper-table;  and  the 
next  day  he  sat  among  the  Peers  and  voted  against 
the  Government,  and  then  went  down  to  his  estates  in 
Wales,  being  an  excellent  holder  of  the  reins,  whether 
on  the  coach  box  or  over  the  cash  box. 

More  and  more  wonderful,  we  hear  that  he  drove 
his  bride  straight  from  the  church  to  the  field  of  a 
prize-fight,  arranged  for  her   special   delectation.      She 


IN   DAME   gossip's   VEIN  293 

dotes  on  seeing  blood-slied  and  drinking  champagne. 
Young  Mr.  Mallard  is  our  authority ;  and  he  says,  she 
enjoyed  it,  and  cheered  the  victor  for  being  her  hus- 
band's man.  And  after  the  shocking  exhibition,  good- 
bye ;  the  Countess  of  Fleetwood  was  left  sole  occupant 
of  a  wayside  inn,  and  may  have  learnt  in  her  sol- 
itude that  she  would  have  been  wise  to  feign  disgust; 
for  men  to  the  smallest  degree  cultivated  are  unable 
to  pardon  a  want  of  delicacy  in  the  woman  who  has 
chosen  them,  as  they  are  taught  to  think  by  their 
having  chosen  her. 

So  talked,  so  twittered,  piped,  and  croaked  the  Lon- 
don world  ever  the  early  rumours  of  the  marriage,  this 
Amazing  Marriage;  which  it  got  to  be  called,  from 
the  number  of  items  flocking  to  swell  the  wonder. 

Eavens  ravening  by  night,  poised  peregrines  by 
day,  provision-merchants  for  the  dispensing  of  dainty 
scraps  to  tickle  the  ears,  to  arm  the  tongues,  to  explode 
reputations,  those  great  ladies,  the  Ladies  Endor,  Eld- 
ritch, and  Cowry,  fateful  three  of  their  period,  avenged 
and  scourged  both  innocence  and  naughtiness;  inno- 
cence, on  the  whole,  the  least,  when  their  withering 
suspicion  of  it  had  hunted  the  unhappy  thing  to  the 
bank  of  Ophelia's  ditch.  Mallard  and  Chumley  Potts, 
Captain  Abrane,  Sir  Meeson  Corby,  Lord  Brailstone, 
were  plucked  at  and  rattled,  put  to  the  blush,  by  a 
pursuit  of  inquiries  conducted  with  beaks.  High-nosed 
dames  will   surpass   eminent  judges   in   their   temerity 


294  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

on  the  border-line  where  Ahem  sounds  the  warning 
note  to  curtained  decency.  The  courtly  M.  de  St. 
Ombre  had  to  stand  confused.  He,  however,  gave  an- 
other version  of  Captain  Abrane's  'fiddler/  and  precip- 
itated the  great  ladies  into  the  reflection,  that  French 
gentlemen,  since  the  execrable  French  Eevolution,  have 
lost  their  proper  sense  of  the  distinctions  of  Class. 
Homme  d^esprit,  applied  to  a  roving  adventurer,  a 
scarce  other  than  vagabond,  was  either  an  undiscrimi- 
nating  epithet  or  else  a  further  example  of  the  French 
deficiency  in  humour. 

Dexterous  contriver,  he  undoubtedly  is.  Lady  Cowry 
has  it  from  Sir  Meeson  Corby,  who  had  it  from  the 
poor  dowager,  that  Lord  Fleetwood  has  installed  the 
man  in  his  house  and  sits  him  at  the  opposite  end  of 
his  table ;  fished  him  up  from  Whitechapel,  where  the 
countess  is  left  serving  oranges  at  a  small  fruit-shop. 
With  her  own  eyes.  Lady  Arpington  saw  her  there; 
and  she  can't  be  got  to  leave  the  place  unless  her  hus- 
band drives  his  coach  down  to  fetch  her.  That  he  de- 
clines to  do ;  so  she  remains  the  Whitechapel  Countess, 
all  on  her  hind  heels  against  the  offer  of  a  shilling  of 
her  husband's  money,  if  she's  not  to  bring  him  to  his 
knees;  and  goes  about  at  night  with  a  low  Methodist 
singing  hymns  along  those  dreadful  streets,  while  Lord 
Fleetwood  gives  gorgeous  entertainments.  One  signal 
from  the  man  he  has  hired,  and  he  stops  drinking; 
he  will  stop  speaking  as  soon  as   the   man's   mouth  is 


295 


open.  He  is  under  a  complete  fascination,  attributable, 
some  say,  to  passes  of  the  hands,  which  the  man  won't 
wash  lest  he  should  weaken  their  influence. 

For  it  cannot  be  simply  his  violin  playing.  They 
say  he  was  a  pupil  of  a  master  of  the  dark  art  in 
Germany,  and  can  practise  on  us  to  make  us  think 
his  commonest  utterances  extraordinarily  acute  and 
precious.  Lord  Fleetwood  runs  round  quoting  him 
to  everybody,  quite  ridiculously.  But  the  man's  in- 
fluence is  sufficient  to  induce  his  patron  to  drive  down 
and  fetch  the  Whitechapel  Countess  home  in  state,  as 
she  insists  —  if  the  man  wishes  it.  Depend  upon  it 
he  is  the  key  of  the  mystery. 

Totally  the  contrary.  Lady  Arpington  declares !  — 
the  man  is  a  learned  man,  formerly  a  Professor  of 
English  Literature  in  a  German  University,  and  no 
connection  of  the  Whitechapel  Countess  whatever,  a 
chance  acquaintance,  at  the  most.  He  operates  on 
Lord  Fleetwood  with  doses  of  German  philosophy ; 
otherwise,  a  harmless  creature  ;  and  has  consented  to 
wash  and  dress.  It  is  my  lord  who  has  had  the 
chief  influence.  And  the  Countess  Livia  now  backs 
him  in  maintaining  that  there  is  nowhere  a  more 
honest  young  man  to  be  found.  She  may  have  her 
reasons. 

As  for  the  Wliitechapel  Countess  .  .  .  the  whole 
story  of  the  Old  Buccaneer  and  Countess  Fanny  was 
retold,  and  it  formed  a  terrific  halo,  presage  of   rains 


296  THE  AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

and  hurricane  tempest,  over  the  girl  the  young  earl 
had  incomprehensibly  espoused  to  discard.  Those  two 
had  a  son  and  a  daughter  born  abroad :  —  in  wedlock, 
we  trust.  The  girl  may  be  as  wild  a  one  as  the 
mother.  She  has  a  will  as  determined  as  her  husband's. 
She  is  offered  Esslemont,  the  earl's  Kentish  mansion, 
for  a  residence,  and  she  will  none  of  it  until  she  has 
him  down  in  the  east  of  London  on  his  knees  to 
entreat  her.  The  injury  was  deep  on  one  side  or  the 
other.  It  may  be  almost  surely  prophesied  that  the 
two  will  never  come  together.  Will  either  of  them 
deal  the  stroke  for  freedom  ?  And  which  is  the 
likelier  ? 

Meanwhile  Lord  Fleetwood  and  his  Whitechapel 
Countess  composed  the  laugh  of  London.  Straightway 
Invention,  the  violent  propagator,  sprang  from  his 
shades  at  a  call  of  the  great  world's  appetite  for  more, 
and  rushing  upon  stationary  Fact,  supplied  the  required. 
Marvel  upon  marvel  was  recounted.  The  mixed  origin 
of  the  singular  issue  could  not  be  examined,  where  all 
was  increasingly  funny. 

Always  the  shout  for  more  produced  it.  She  and  her 
band  of  Whitechapel  boys  were  about  in  ambush  to  way- 
lay the  earl  wherever  he  went.  She  stood  knocking  at 
his  door  through  a  whole  night.  He  dared  not  lug  her 
before  a  magistrate  for  fear  of  exposure.  Once,  riding 
in  the  park  with  a  troop  of  friends  he  had  a  young 
woman  pointed  out  to  him,  and  her  finger  was  levelled, 


Ilf  DAME  gossip's   VEIN  297 

and  she  cried:  "There  is  the  English  nobleman  who 
marries  a  girl  and  leaves  her  to  go  selling  cabbages ! " 

He  left  town  for  the  Island,  and  beheld  his  yacht 
sailing  the  Solent:  —  my  lady  the  countess  was  on  board! 
A  pair  of  Tyrolese  minstrels  in  the  square  kindled  his 
enthusiasm  at  one  of  his  dinners ;  he  sent  them  a  sov- 
ereign; their  humble,  hearty  thanks  were  returned  to 
him  in  the  name  of  Die  Grdjin  von  Fleetwood. 

The  Ladies  Endor,  Eldritch,  and  Cowry  sifted  their 
best.  They  let  pass  incredible  stories :  among  others, 
that  she  had  sent  cards  to  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  the 
West  End  of  London,  offering  to  deliver  sacks  of  pota- 
toes by  newly  established  donkey-cart  at  the  doors  of 
their  residences,  at  so  much  per  sack,  bills  quarterly; 
with  the  postscript,  Vive  V aristocratie !  Their  inform- 
ant had  seen  a  card,  and  the  stamp  of  the  Fleetwood 
dragon-crest  was  on  it. 

He  has  enemies,  was  variously  said  of  the  persecuted 
nobleman.  But  it  was  nothing  worse  than  the  parasite 
that  he  had.  This  was  the  parasite's  gentle  treason. 
He  found  it  an  easy  road  to  humour;  it  pricked  the 
slug  fancy  in  him  to  stir  and  curl ;  gave  him  occasion  to 
bundle  and  bustle  his  patron  kindly.  Abrane,  Potts, 
Mallard,  and  Sir  Meeson  Corby  were  personages  during 
the  town's  excitement,  besought  for  having  something  to 
say.  Petrels  of  the  sea  of  tattle,  they  were  buoyed  by 
the  hubbub  they  created,  and  felt  the  tipsy  happiness  of 
being  certain  to  rouse  the  laugh  wherever  they  alighted. 


298  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

Sir  Meeson  Corby,  important  to  himself  in  an  eminent 
degree,  enjoyed  the  novel  sense  of  his  importance  with 
his  fellows.  They  crowded  round  the  bore  who  had 
scattered  them. 

He  traced  the  miserable  catastrophe  in  the  earl's 
fortunes  to  the  cunning  of  the  rascal  now  sponging  on 
Fleetwood  and  trying  to  dress  like  a  gentleman :  a  con- 
victed tramp,  elevated  by  the  caprice  of  the  young  noble- 
man he  was  plotting  to  ruin.  Sir  Meeson  quoted  Cap- 
tain Abrane's  latest  effort  to  hit  the  dirty  object's  name, 
by  calling  him  "Fleetwood's  Mr.  Woodlouse."  And 
was  the  rascal  a  sorcerer  ?  Sir  Meeson  spoke  of  him  in 
the  hearing  of  the  Countess  Livia,  and  she,  previously 
echoing  his  disgust,  corrected  him  sharply,  and  said: 
"I  begin  to  be  of  E-ussett's  opinion,  that  his  fault  is 
his  honesty."  The  rascal  had  won  or  partly  won  the 
empress  of  her  sex !  This  Lady  Livia,  haughtiest  and 
most  fastidious  of  our  younger  great  dames,  had  become 
the  indulgent  critic  of  the  tramp's  borrowed  plumes! 
Nay,  she  would  not  listen  to  a  depreciatory  word  on  him 
from  her  cousin  Henrietta  Kirby-Levellier. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  of  all  places  for  an  encounter 
between  the  Earl  of  Fleetwood  and  the  countess,  those 
vulgar  Gardens  across  the  water,  long  since  abandoned 
by  the  Fashion,  were  the  most  suitable.  Thither  one 
fair  June  night,  for  the  sake  of  showing  the  dowager 
countess  and  her  beautiful  cousin,  the  French  nobleman. 
Sir  Meeson  Corby,  and  others,  what  were  the  pleasures  of 


tlie  London  lower  orders,  my  lord  had  the  whim  to  con- 
duct them,  —  merely  a  parade  of  observation  once  round; 
—  the  ladies  veiled,  the  gentlemen  with  sticks,  and  two 
servants  following,  one  of  whom,  dressed  in  quiet  black, 
like  the  peacefullest  of  parsons,  was  my  lord's  pugilist, 
Christopher  Ines. 

Now,  here  we  come  to  history:  though  you  will 
remember  what  History  is. 

The  party  walked  round  the  Gardens  unmolested: 
nor  have  we  grounds  for  supposing  they  assumed 
airs  of  state  in  the  style  of  a  previous  generation. 
Only,  as  it  happened,  a  gentleman  of  the  party  was 
a  wag ;  no  less  than  the  famous,  well-seasoned  John 
Rose  Mackrell,  bent  on  amusing  Mrs.  Kirby-Levellier, 
to  hear  her  lovely  laughter;  and  his  wit  and  his 
anecdotes,  both  inexhaustible,  proved  that,  as  he 
said,  "a  dried  fish  is  no  stale  fish,  and  a  smoky 
flavour  to  an  old  chimney  story  will  often  render 
it  more  piquant  to  the  taste  than  one  jumping 
fresh  off  the  incident."  His  exact  meaning  in  'smoky 
flavour '  we  are  not  to  know ;  but  Avhether  that  M.  de  St. 
Ombre  should  witness  the  effect  of  English  humour 
upon  them,  or  that  the  ladies  could  permit  themselves 
to  laugh,  their  voices  accompanied  the  gentlemen  in 
silver  volleys.  There  had  been  '  Mackrell '  at  Fleet- 
wood's dinner-table;  which  was  then  a  way  of  saying 
that  dry  throats  made  no  count  of  the  quantity  of 
champagne   imbibed,  owing   to   the  fits   Rose   Mackrell 


300  THE  AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

caused.  However,  there  was  loud  laughter  as  tliey 
strolled,  and  it  was  noticed;  and  Fleetwood  crying 
out,  ^^  Mackrell !  Mackrell !  "  in  delighted  repudiation 
of  the  wag's  last  sally,  the  cry  of  "  Hooray,  Mackrell ! " 
was  caught  up  by  the  crowd.  They  were  not  the 
primary  offenders,  for  loud  laughter  in  an  isolated 
party  is  bad  breeding;  but  they  had  not  the  plea 
of  a  copious  dinner. 

So  this  affair  began;  inoffensively  at  the  start,  for 
my  lord  was  good-hiunoured  about  it. 

Kit  Ines,  of  the  mercurial  legs,  must  now  give 
impromptu  display  of  his  dancing.  He  seized  a 
partner,  in  the  manner  of  a  Eoman  the  Sabine,  sure 
of  pleasing  his  patron;  and  the  maid,  passing  from 
surprise  to  merriment,  entered  the  quadi-ille  perforce, 
all  giggles,  not  without  emulation,  for  she  likewise 
had  the  passion  for  the  dance.  Whereby  it  befell 
that  the  pair  footed  in  a  way  to  gather  observant 
spectators;  and  if  it  had  not  been  that  the  man 
from  whom  the  maid  was  willy-nilly  snatched,  con- 
ceived resentment,  things  might  have  passed  comfort- 
ably ;  for  Kit's  quips  and  cuts  and  high  capers,  and 
the  Sunday  gravity  of  the  barge  face  while  the  legs 
were  at  their  impish  trickery,  double  motion  to  the 
music,  won  the  crowd  to  cheer.  They  conjectured 
him  to  be  a  British  sailor.  But  the  destituted  man 
said,  sailor  or  no  sailor,  —  bos'en  be  hanged !  he  should 
pay  for  his  whistle. 


IN  DAME   gossip's   VEIN  301 

Honourably  at  the  close  of  the  quadrille,  Kit  brought 
her  back;  none  the  worse  for  it,  he  boldly  affirmed, 
and  he  thanked  the  man  for  the  short  loan  of  her. 
The  man  had  an  itch  to  strike.  Choosing  rather  to 
be  struck  first,  he  vented  nasty  remarks.  My  lord 
spoke  to  Kit  and  moved  on.  At  the  moment  of  the 
step.  Rose  Mackrell  uttered  something,  a  waggery  of 
some  sort,  heard  to  be  forgotten,  but  of  such  instanta- 
neous effect,  that  the  prompt  and  immoderate  laugh  suc- 
ceeding it  might  reasonably  be  taken  for  a  fling  of  scorn 
at  himself,  by  an  injured  man.  They  were  a  party; 
he  therefore  proceeded  to  make  one,  appealing  to 
English  sentiment  and  right  feeling.  The  blameless 
and  repentant  maid  plucked  at  his  coat  to  keep  him 
from  dogging  the  heels  of  the  gentlemen.  Fun  was 
promised ;  consequently  the  crowd  waxed. 

"My  lord,"  had  been  let  fall  by  Kit  Ines.  Con- 
joined to  "Mackrell,"  it  rang  finely,  and  a  trumpeting 
of  "Lord  Mackrell"  resounded.  Lord  Mackrell  was 
asked  for  "more  capers  and  not  so  much  sauce."  Va- 
rious fish  took  part  in  his  title  of  nobility.  The  wag 
Mackrell  continuing  to  be  discreetly  silent,  and  Kit 
Ines  acting  as  a  pacific  rearguard,  the  crowd  fell  in 
love  with  their  display  of  English  humour,  disposed 
to  the  surly  satisfaction  of  a  big  street  dog  that  has 
been  appeased  by  a  smaller  one's  total  cessation  of 
growls. 

All   might   have   gone  well   but   for   the   sudden   ap- 


302  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

pearance  of  two  figures  of  young  women  on  the  scene. 
They  fronted  the  advance  of  the  procession.  They 
wanted  to  have  a  word  with  Lord  Mackrell.  Not  a 
bit  of  it  —  he  won't  listen,  turns  away;  and  one  of 
the  pair  slips  round  him.  It's  regular  imploring : 
"  my  lord  !   my  lord !  " 

0  you  naughty  Surrey  melodram  villain  of  a  Lord 
Mackrell!  Listen  to  the  young  woman,  you  Mackrell, 
or  you'll  get  Billingsgate !  Here's  Mr.  Jig-and-Eeel 
behind  here,  says  she's  done  him !  By  Gosh !  What's 
up  now? 

One  of  the  young  ladies  of  the  party  ahead  had 
rushed  up  to  the  young  woman  dodging  to  stand  in 
Lord  Mackrell's  way.  The  crowd  pressed  to  see.  Kit 
Ines  and  his  mate  shouldered  them  off.  They  per- 
formed an  envelopment  of  the  gentlemen  and  ladies, 
including  the  two  young  women.  Kit  left  his  mate 
and  ran  to  the  young  woman  hitherto  the  quieter  of 
the  two.  He  rattled  at  her.  But  she  had  a  tongue  of 
her  own  and  she  rattled  it  at  him.  ^Vhat  did  she 
say? 

Merely  to  hear,  for  no  other  reason,  a  peace-loving 
crowd  of  clerks,  and  tradesmen,  workmen  and  their 
girls,  young  aspirants  to  the  professions,  night-larks 
of  different  classes,  both  sexes,  there  in  that  place  for 
simple  entertainment,  animated  simply  by  the  spirit 
of  English  humour,  contracted,  so  closing  upon  the 
Mackrell    party   as   to   seem    threatening  to   the   most 


EN-   DAME   gossip's    VEIN  303 

orderly  and  apprehensive  member  of  it,  who  was  the 
baronet,  Sir  Meeson  Corby. 

He  was  a  man  for  the  constables  in  town  emer- 
gencies, and  he  shouted.  "  Cock  Eobin  crowing  "  pro- 
voked a  jolly  round  of  barking  chaff.  The  noise  in  a 
dense  ring  drew  Fleetwood's  temper.  He  gave  the 
word  to  Kit  Ines,  and  immediately  two  men  dropped ; 
a  dozen  staggered  unhit.  The  fists  worked  right  and 
left;  such  a  clearing  of  ground  was  never  seen  for 
sickle  or  scythe.  And  it  was  taken  respectfully;  for 
Science  proclaimed  her  venerable  self  in  the  style 
and  the  perfect  sufficiency  of  the  strokes.  A  bruiser 
delivered  them.  No  shame  to  back  away  before  a 
bruiser.  There  was  rather  an  admiring  envy  of  the 
party  claiming  the  nimble  champion  on  their  side, 
until  the  very  moderate  lot  of  the  Mackrells  went 
stepping  forward  along  the  strewn  -psiih  with  sticks 
pointed. 

If  the}^  had  walked  it  like  gentlemen,  they  would 
have  been  allowed  to  get  through.  An  aggressive  mi- 
nority, and  with  Cock  Robin  squealing  for  constables 
in  the  midst,  is  that  insolent  upstart  tiring  which 
howls  to  have  a  lesson.  The  sticks  were  fallen  on; 
bump  came  the  mass.  Kit  Ines  had  to  fight  liis  way 
back  to  his  mate,  and  the  couple  scoured  a  clearish 
ring,  but  the  gentlemen  were  at  short  thrusts,  affable 
in  tone,  to  cheer  the  spirits  of  the  ladies :  —  ''All 
right,    my    friend,    you're   a  trifle    mistaken,    it's    my 


304  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

stick,  not  yours."  Therewith  the  wrestle  for  the 
stick. 

The  one  stick  not  pointed  was  wrenched  from  the 
grasp  of  Sir  Meeson  Corby ;  and  by  a  woman,  the 
young  woman  who  had  accosted  my  lord;  not  a  com- 
mon young  woman  either,  as  she  appeared  when  be- 
seeching him.  Her  stature  rose  to  battle  heights :  she 
made  play  with  Sir  Meeson  Corby's  ebony  stick,  using 
it  in  one  hand  as  a  dwarf  quarterstaff  to  flail  the 
sconces,  then  to  dash  the  point  at  faces ;  and  she 
being  a  woman,  a  girl,  perhaps  a  lady,  her  cool  war- 
rior method  of  cleaving  way,  without  so  much  as 
tightening  her  lips,  was  found  notable;  and  to  this 
degree  (vouched  for  by  Eose  Mackrell,  who  heard  it), 
that  a  fellow,  rubbing  his  head,  cried :  "  Damn  it  all, 
she's  clever,  though!"  She  took  her  station  beside 
Lord  Fleetwood. 

He  had  been  as  cool  as  she,  or  almost.  Now  he  was 
maddened;  she  defended  him,  she  warded  and  thrust 
for  him,  only  for  him,  to  save  him  a  touch;  unasked, 
undesired,  detested  for  the  box  on  his  ears  of  to-morrow's 
public  mockery,  as  she  would  be,  overwhelming  him  with 
ridicule.  Have  you  seen  the  kick  and  tug  at  the  straps 
of  the  mettled  pony  in  stables  that  betrays  the  mishand- 
ling of  him  by  his  groom  ?  Something  so  did  Fleetwood 
plunge  and  dart  to  be  free  of  her,  and  his  desperate  soul 
cried  out  on  her  sticking  to  him  like  a  plaster ! 

Welcome  were  the  constables.     His  guineas  winked  at 


IN   DAME   gossip's    VEIN  305 

their  chief,  as  fair  women  convey  their  meanings,  with 
no  motion  of  eyelids ;  and  the  officers  of  the  law  knew 
the  voice  habituated  to  command,  and  answered  two 
words  of  his:  "Eight,  my  lord,"  smelling  my  lord  in 
the  unerring  manner  of  those  days.  My  lord's  party 
were  escorted  to  the  gates,  not  a  little  jeered;  though 
they  by  no  means  had  the  worst  of  the  tussle.  But  the 
puffing  indignation  of  Sir  Meeson  Corby  over  his  bat- 
tered hat  and  torn  frill  and  buttons  plucked  from  his 
coat,  and  his  threat  of  the  magistrates,  excited  the 
crowd  to  derisive  yells. 

My  lord  spoke  something  to  his  man,  handing  his 
purse. 

The  ladies  were  spared  the  hearing  of  bad  language. 
They,  according  to  the  joint  testimony  of  M.  de  St. 
Ombre  and  Mr.  Eose  Mackrell,  comported  themselves 
throughout  as  became  the  daughters  of  a  warrior  race. 
Both  gentlemen  were  emphatic  to  praise  the  unknown 
Britomart  who  had  done  such  gallant  service  with  Sir 
Meeson's  ebon}^  wand.  He  was  beginning  to  fuss  vocif- 
erously about  the  loss  of  the  stick  —  a  family  stick,  gold- 
headed,  the  family  crest  on  it,  priceless  to  the  family  — 
when  Mrs.  Kirby-Levellier  handed  it  to  him  inside  the 
coach. 

"  But  where  is  she  ?  "  M.  de  St.  Ombre  said,  and  took 
the  hint  of  Livia's  touch  on  his  arm  in  the  dark. 

At  the  silence  following  the  question,  Mr.  Eose  Mack- 
rell murmured,  "  Ah !  " 


306  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

He  and  the  French  gentleman  understood  that  there 
had  been  a  manifestation  of  the  notorious  Whitechapel 
Countess. 

They  were  two ;  and  a  slower- witted  third  was  travel- 
ling to  his  ideas  on  the  subject.  Three  men,  witnesses 
of  a  remarkable  incident  in  connection  with  a  boiling 
topic  of  current  scandal,  —  glaringly  illustrative  of  it, 
moreover,  —  were  unlikely  to  keep  close  tongues,  even  if 
they  had  been  sworn  to  secresy.  Fleetwood  knew  it, 
and  he  scorned  to  solicit  them ;  an  exaction  of  their  idle 
vows  would  be  merely  the  humiliation  of  himself.  So 
he  tossed  his  dignity  to  recklessness,  as  the  ultra- 
convivial  give  the  last  wink  of  reason  to  the  wine-cup. 
Persecuted  as  he  was,  nothing  remained  for  him  but  the 
nether-sublime  of  a  statuesque  desperation. 

That  was  his  feeling;  and  his  way  of  cloaking  it 
under  light  sallies  at  Sir  Meeson  and  easy  chat  with 
Henrietta  made  it  visible  to  her,  from  its  being  the  con- 
trary of  what  the  world  might  expect  a  proud  young 
nobleman  to  exhibit.  She  pitied  him  :  she  had  done  him 
some  wrong.  She  read  into  him,  too,  as  none  else  could. 
Seeing  the  solitary  tortures  behind  the  pleasant  social 
mask,  she  was  drawn  to  partake  of  them ;  and  the  mask 
seemed  pathetic.  She  longed  to  speak  a  word  in  sym- 
pathy or  relieve  her  bosom  of  tears.  Carinthia  had 
sunk  herself,  was  unpardonable,  hardly  mentionable. 
Any  of  the  tales  told  of  her  might  be  credited  after 
this !     The  incorrigible  cause  of  humiliation  for  every- 


A   KIDNAPPING   AND   NO   GREAT  HARM         307 

body  connected  with  her  pictured,  at  a  word  of  her 
name,  the  crowd  pressing  and  the  London  world  acting 
audience.  Livia  spoke  the  name  when  they  had  reached 
their  house  and  were  alone.  Henrietta  responded  with 
the  imperceptible  shrug  which  is  more  eloquent  than 
a  cry  to  tell  of  the  most  monstrous  of  loads.  My  lord, 
it  was  thought  by  the  ladies,  had  directed  his  man  to 
convey  her  safely  to  her  chosen  home,  whence  she  might 
be  expected  very  soon  to  be  issuing  and  striking  the 
gong  of  London  again. 


CHAPTEE  XXIV 

A    KIDNAPPIXG    AND    NO    GREAT    HARM 

Ladies  who  have  the  pride  of  delicate  breeding  are 
not  more  than  rather  violently  hurled  back  on  the 
fortress  it  is  when  one  or  other  of  the  gross  mishaps 
of  circumstance  may  subject  them  to  a  shock :  and  this 
happening  in  the  presence  of  gentlemen,  they  are  sus- 
tained by  the  within  and  the  without  to  keep  a  smooth 
countenance,  however  severe  their  affliction.  Men  of 
heroic  nerve  decline  similarly  to  let  explosions  shake 
them,  though  earth  be  shaken.  Dragged  into  the  mon- 
strous grotesque  of  the  scene  at  the  Gardens,  Livia 
and  Henrietta  went  through  the  ordeal,  masking  any 
signs  that  they  were  stripped  for  a  flagellation.     Only, 


308  THE   AMAZING  MARRIAGE 

the  fair  cousins  were  unable  to  perceive  a  comic  ele- 
ment in  the  scene :  and  if  the  world  was  for  laughing, 
as  their  instant  apprehension  foresaw  it,  the  world  was 
an  ignoble  beast.  They  did  not  discuss  Carinthia's 
latest  craziness  at  night,  hardly  alluded  to  it,  while 
they  were  in  the  inter jectory  state. 

Henrietta  was  Livia's  guest,  her  husband  having  hur- 
ried away  to  Vienna  :  "  To  get  money  !  money  !  "  her 
angry  bluntness  explained  his  absence,  and  dealt  its 
blow  at  the  sudden  astounding  poverty  into  which  they 
had  fallen.  She  was  compelled  to  practise  an  exces- 
sive, an  incredible  economy  :  —  "  think  of  the  smallest 
trifles  ! "  so  that  her  Chillon  travelled  unaccompanied, 
they  were  separated.  Her  iterations  upon  money  were 
the  vile  constraint  of  an  awakened  interest  and  wonder- 
ment at  its  powers.  She,  the  romantic  Eiette,  banner 
of  chivalry,  reader  of  poetry,  struck  a  line  between  poor 
and  rich  in  her  talk  of  people,  and  classed  herself  with 
the  fallen  and  pinched;  she  harped  on  her  slender 
means,  on  the  enforced  calculations  preceding  pur- 
chases, on  the  living  in  lodgings ;  and  that  miserly 
Lord  Levellier's  indebtedness  to  Chillon  —  large  sums! 
and  Chillon^s  praiseworthy  resolve  to  pay  the  creditors 
of  her  father's  estate ;  and  of  how  he  travelled  like  a 
common  man,  in  consequence  of  the  money  he  had 
given  Janey  —  weakly,  for  her  obstinacy  was  past  en- 
durance ;  but  her  brother  would  not  leave  her  penniless, 
and  penniless  she  had  been  for  weeks,  because  of  her 


A  KIDNAPPING   AND   NO   GREAT   HAEM         309 

stubborn  resistance  to  the  earl  —  quite  unreasonably, 
whether  right  or  wrong  —  in  the  foul  retreat  she  had 
chosen ;  apparently  with  a  notion  that  the  horror  of  it 
was  her  vantage  ground  against  him:  and  though  a 
single  sign  of  submission  would  place  the  richest  purse 
in  England  at  her  disposal.  ^^She  refuses  Esslemont! 
She  insists  on  his  meeting  her!  iSTo  child  could  be 
so  witless.  Let  him  be  the  one  chiefly  or  entirely  to 
blame,  she  might  show  a  little  tact  —  for  her  brother's 
sake !  She  loves  her  brother  ?  'No :  deaf  to  him,  to  me, 
to  every  consideration  except  her  blind  will." 

Here  was  the  skeleton  of  the  love  match,  earlier  than 
Livia  had  expected. 

It  refreshed  a  phlegmatic  lady's  disposition  for  proph- 
esy. Lovers  abruptly  tossed  between  wind  and  wave 
may  still  be  lovers,  she  knew:  but  they  are,  or  the 
weaker  of  the  two  is,  hard  upon  any  third  person  who 
tugs  at  them  for  subsistence  or  existence.  The  con- 
dition, if  they  are  much  beaten  about,  prepares  true 
lovers,  through  their  mutual  tenderness,  to  be  bitterly 
misanthropical. 

Livia  supposed  the  novel  economic  pinches  to  be  the 
cause  of  Henrietta's  unwonted  harsh  judgment  of  her 
sister-in-law's  misconduct,  or  the  crude  expression  of  it. 
She  could  not  guess  that  Carinthia's  unhappiness  in 
marriage  was  a  spectre  over  the  married  happiness  of 
the  pair  fretted  by  the  conscience  which  told  them  the}* 
had  come  together  by  doing  much  to  bring  it  to  pass. 


310  THE   AJVIAZING  MARRIAGE 

Henrietta  could  seem  to  herself  less  the  culprit  when 
she  blamed  Carinthia  in  another's  hearing. 

After  some  repose,  the  cousins  treated  their  horrible 
misadventure  as  a  piece  of  history.  Livia  was  cool ; 
she  had  not  a  husband  involved  in  it,  as  Henrietta 
had;  and  London's  hoarse  laugh  surely  coming  on 
them,  spared  her  the  dread  Henrietta  suffered,  that 
Chillon  would  hear ;  the  most  sensitive  of  men  on  any 
matter  touching  his  family. 

"  And  now  a  sister  added  to  the  list !  Will  there 
be  names,  Livia  ?  " 

"  The  newspapers !  "     Livia's  shoulders  rose. 

"  We  ought  to  have  sworn  the  gentlemen  to  silence." 

"M.  de  St.  Ombre  is  a  tomb  until  he  writes  his 
Memoirs.  ^  hold  Sir  Meeson  under  lock.  But  a 
spiced  incident,  ^-  a  notorious  couple,  —  an  anecdotal 
witness  to  -  the  scene,  —  could  you  expect  Mr.  Eose 
Mackrell  to  contain  it?  The  sacredest  of  oaths,  my 
dear ! " 

That  relentless  force  impelling  an  anecdotist  to 
slaughter  families  for  the  amusement  of  dinner-tables, 
was  brought  home  to  Henrietta  by  her  prospect  of 
being  a. victim;  and  Livia  reminding  her  of  the  exces- 
sive laughter  at  Eose  Mackrell's  anecdotes  overnight, 
she  bemoaned  her  having  consented  to  go  to  those 
Gardens  in  mourning. 

"How  could  Janey  possibly  have  heard  of  the 
project  to  go?'/ 


A  KIDNAPPING   AND   NO   GREAT   HARM         311 

"You  went  to  please  Russett,  he  to  please  you,  and 
that  wild-cat  to  please  herself,"  said  Livia.  "  She 
haunts  his  door,  I  suppose,  and  follows  him,  like  a 
running  footman.  Every  step  she  takes  widens  the 
breach.  He  keeps  his  temper,  yes,  keeps  his  temper 
as  he  keeps  his  word,  and  one  morning  it  breaks 
loose,  and  all  that's  done  has  to  be  undone.  It  will 
be  —  must.  That  extravaganza,  as  she  is  called,  is 
fatal,  dogs  him  with  burlesque :  —  of  all  men  ! " 

"Why  not  consent  to  meet  her   once,  Chillon  asks." 

"You  are  asking  Russett  to  yield  an  inch  on  de- 
mand, and  to  a  woman." 

"My  husband  would  yield  to  a  woman  what  he 
would  refuse  to  all  the  men  in  Europe  and  America," 
said  Henrietta;  and  she  enjoyed  her  thrill  of  allegiance 
to  her  chivalrous  lord  and  courtier. 

"No  very  extraordinary  specimen  of  a  newly  married 
man,  who  has  won  the  Beauty  of  England  and  America 
for  his  wife  —  at  some  cost  to  som®-  people,"  Livia 
rejoined. 

There  came  a  moisture  on  the  eyelashes  of  the 
emotional  young  woman,  from  a  touch  of  compassion 
for  the  man  who  had  wished  to  call  her  wife,  and 
was  condemned  by  her  rejection  of  him  to  call  an6ther 
woman  wife,  to  be  wifeless  in  wedding  her. 

"She  thinks  he  loves  her;  it  is  pitiable,  but  she 
thinks  it  —  after  the  treatment  she  has  had.  She  begs 
to  see  him  once." 


312  THE  AMAZING  MAEETAGE 

"And  subdue  him  with  a  fit  of  weeping,"  Livia 
was  moved  to  say  by  sight  of  the  tear  she  hated.  ^-  It 
would  harden  Russett  —  on  other  eyes,  too !  Salt- 
water drops  are  like  the  forced  agony  scenes  in  a 
play :  they  bring  down  the  curtain,  they  don't  win 
the  critics.     I  heard  her '  my  husband'  and  saw  his  face." 

"You  didn't  hear  a  whimper  with  it,"  Henrietta 
said.  "She's  a  mountain  girl,  not  your  city  madam 
on  the  boards.  Chillon  and  I  had  her  by  each  hand, 
implored  her  to  leave  that  impossible  Whitechapel, 
and  she  trembled,  not  a  drop  was  shed  by  her.  I  can 
almost  fancy  privation  and  squalor  have  no  terrors 
for  Janey.  She  sings  to  the  people  down  there, 
nurses  them.  She  might  be  occupying  Esslemont — 
our  dream  of  an  English  home !  She  is  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  idea  of  romantic  in  connection  with  the 
name  of  marriage.  I  talk  like  a  simpleton.  Janey 
upsets  us  all.  My  lord  was  only  a  little  queer  before 
Jie  knew  her.  His  Mr.  Woodseer  may  be  encouraging 
her.  You  tell  me  the  creature  has  a  salary  from  him 
equal  to  your  jointure." 

"Be  civil  to  the  man  while  it  lasts,"  Livia  said, 
attentive  to  a  degradation  of  tone  in  her  cousin,  for- 
merly of  supreme  self-containment. 

The  beautiful  young  woman  was  reminded  of  her 
holiday  in  town.  She  brightened,  and  the  little  that 
it  was,  and  the  meanness  of  the  satisfaction,  darkened 
her.     Envy    of   the   lucky    adventurer    Mr.   Woodseer, 


A   KIDNAPPING  AND   NO   GREAT  HARM         313 

on  her  husband's  behalf,  grew  horridly  conscious  for 
being  reproved.  So  she  plucked  resolution  to  enjoy 
her  holiday  and  forget  the  contrasts  of  life  —  palaces 
running  profusion,  lodgings  hammered  by  duns ;  the 
pinch  of  poverty  distracting  every  simple  look  inside 
or  out.  There  was  no  end  to  it,  for  her  husband's 
chivalrous  honour  forced  him  to  undertake  the  pay- 
ment of  her  father's  heavy  debts.  He  was  right  and 
admirable,  it  could  not  be  contested;  but  the  prospect 
for  them  was  a  grinding  gloom,  an  unrelieved  drag, 
as  of  a  coach  at  night  on  an  interminable  uphill  flinty 
road. 

These  were  her  sensations,  and  she  found  it  divert- 
ing to  be  admired;  admired  by  many  while  she  knew 
herself  to  be  absorbed  in  the  possession  of  her  by  one. 
It  bestowed  the  before  and  after  of  her  marriage. 
She  felt  she  was  really,  had  rapidly  become,  the 
young  woman  of  the  world,  armed  with  a  husband: 
to  take  the  flatteries  of  men  for  the  needed  diversion 
they  brought.  None  moved  her ;  none  could  come  near 
to  touching  the  happy  insensibility  of  a  wife  who 
adored  her  husband,  wrote  to  him  daily,  thought  of 
him  by  the  minute.  Her  former  worshippers  were 
numerous  at  Livia's  receptions;  Lord  Fleetwood,  Lord 
Brailstone,  and  the  rest.  Odd  to  reflect  on  —  they  were 
the  insubstantial  but  coveted  wealth  of  the  woman 
fallen  upon  poverty,  ignoble  poverty!  She  could  not 
discard    her    wealth.     She   wrote   amusingly  of    them. 


314  THE  AMAZING   IMARETAGE 

and  fully,  vivacious  descriptions,  to  CMllon;  hardly  so 
much  writing  to  him  as  entering  her  heart's  barred 
citadel,  where  he  resided  at  his  ease,  heard  everything 
that  befell  about  her.  If  she  dwelt  on  Lord  Fleet- 
wood's kindness  in  providing  entertainments,  her  ob- 
ject was  to  mollify  Chillon's  anger  to  some  degree. 
She  was  doing  her  utmost  to  gratify  him,  "  for  the 
purpose  of  paving  a  way  to  plead  Janey's  case."  She 
was  almost  persuading  herself  she  was  enjoying  the 
remarks  of  his  friend,  confidant,  secretary,  or  what  not, 
Livia's  worshipper,  Mr.  Woodseer,  "  who  does  as  he  wills 
with  my  lord;  directs  his  charities,  his  pleasures,  his 
opinions,  all  because  he  is  believed  to  have  wonderful 
ideas  and  be  wonderfully  honest." 

Henrietta  wrote :  "  Situation  unchanged.  Janey  still 
at  that  place";  and  before  the  letter  was  posted,  she 
and  Livia  had  heard  from  Gower  Woodseer  of  the 
reported  disappearance  of  the  Countess  of  Fleetwood 
and  her  maid.  Gower' s  father  had  walked  up  from 
Whitechapel,  bearing  news  of  it  to  the  earl,  he  said. 

"And  the  earl  is  much  disturbed?"  was  Livia's  inquiry. 

"He  has  driven  down  with  my  father,"  Gower  said 
carelessly,  ambiguously  in  the   sound. 

Troubled  enough  to  desire  the  show  of  a  corre- 
sponding trouble,  Henrietta  read  at  their  faces. 

"  May  it  not  be  —  down  there  —  a  real  danger  ?  " 

The  drama,  he  could  inform  her,  was  only  too 
naked  down  there  for  disappearances  to  be  common. 


A  KIDNAPPING   AND   NO   GREAT   HARM         315 

"  Will  it  be  published  that  she  is  missing  ?  " 

"She  has  her  maid  with  her,  a  stout-hearted  girl. 
Both  have  courage.  I  don't  think  we  need  take  meas- 
ures just  yet." 

"jSTot  before  it  is  public  property?" 

Henrietta  could  have  bitten  her  tongue  for  laying 
her  open  to  the  censure  implied  in  his  muteness. 
Janey  perverted  her. 

AVomen  were  an  illegible  manuscript,  and  ladies  a 
closed  book  of  the  binding,  to  this  raw  philosopher,  or 
he  would  not  so  coldly  have  judged  the  young  wife,  anx- 
ious on  her  husband's  account,  that  they  might  escape 
another  scorching.     He  carried  away  his  impression. 

Livia  listened  to  a  remark  on  his  want  of  manners. 

"Eussett  puts  it  to  the  credit  of  his  honesty,"  she 
said.  "  Honesty  is  everything  with  us  at  present.  The 
man  has  made  his  honesty  an  excellent  speculation. 
He  puts  a  piece  on  zero  and  the  bank  hands  him  a 
sackful.  We  may  think  we  have  won  him  to  serve 
us,  up  comes  his  honesty.  That's  how  we  have  Lady 
Arpington  mixed  in  it —  too  long  a  tale.  But  be  guided 
by  me ;  condescend  a  little." 

"  My  dear !  my  whole  mind  is  upon  that  unhappy  girl. 
It  would  break  Chillon's  heart." 

Livia  pished.  "There  are  letters  we  read  before  we 
crack  the  seal.  She  is  out  of  that  ditch,  and  it  suits 
Kussett  that  she  should  be.  He's  not  often  so  patient. 
A   woman   foot  to    foot  against    his  will  —  I   see   him 


316  THE   AMAZING   MARRIAGE 

throwing  high  stakes.  Tyrants  are  brutal;  and  really 
she  provokes  him  enough.  You  needn't  be  alarmed 
about  the  treatment  she'll  meet.  He  won't  let  her  beat 
him,  be  sure." 

Neither  Livia  nor  Gower  wondered  at  the  clearing 
of  the  mystery,  before  it  went  to  swell  the  scandal. 
A  young  nobleman  of  ready  power,  quick  temper,  few 
scruples,  and  a  taxed  forbearance,  was  not  likely  to 
stand  thwarted  and  goaded  —  and  by  a  woman.  Lord 
Fleetwood  acted  his  part,  inscrutable  as  the  blank  of 
a  locked  door.  He  could  not  conceal  that  he  was 
behind  the  door. 


